The growth of Global Medical tourism sector in India demands a competitive business scenario as the country sees millions of inbound medical tourists seeking quality healthcare at affordable costs. Advanced medical technology has helped millions to conquer the gravest of diseases but at a huge financial cost. Countries offering high class treatments at reasonable costs are today the hottest medical tourism destinations. With several countries vying for the global top spot in medical tourism, an attractive competitive model in India is imperative at this juncture.
Understanding how local government and culture help in framing MT business strategies
If we are looking forward to promote medical and wellness tourism in India, the conditions look bright and the policymakers look optimistic. The government in early 2014 had taken a constructive stand to encourage medical tourism in India. To achieve the purpose, it has decided to set up three subcommittees, which would explore the problems connected with administrative control exercised for smooth running of medical tourism sector, providing testimonials that would vouch for the efficiency of this sector, and strengthening efforts to improve the marketing strategies for medical tourism.
In the first press meet of the Medical and Wellness tourism Board, a couple of solemn commitments were passed by the Ministry of Tourism among which the following were
categorically expressed:
- For the visiting medical tourists, there will be an all out effort on the part of the government to attend any problems faced by them. It is a matter of prime importance that medical and wellness tourists to India are a valuable source of foreign currency. The government plans to leave no stone unturned to see that India remains a hot spot for medical tourism. If once India’s image gets tarnished, we would lose all business centering on medical tourism to India.
- The Visa formalities should be simplified. It should be hassle free and supportive so that overseas customers seeking medical tourism can step into this country with ease. The formalities should not turn into a mere bureaucratic exercise focusing on meaningless paperwork. It should deliver goods at the right point of time and to the right people.
- It is felt imperative that the government should monitor closely the functional responsibility of the tour operators handling the business of medical tourism. How far have they been fair, efficient and dedicated toward the valuable medical tourists is open to question. The delivery of facilities by these operators should be transparent and not based on empty promises. The country’s reputation for being a great destination for medical treatment would be at stake in that case. The government needs to monitor these areas with vigorous endeavor.
- In the domain of medical and wellness tourism, the connection between the service providers and the consumers play a significant role. A rise in the number of hospitals is not enough. What is important is the upgrade of the quality of medical treatment and the increase in the number of hospitals with proper accreditation.
However, a silver lining could be seen as the government has made it public to set up a medical and wellness tourism promotion board headed by eminent personalities like the Yoga maestro Baba Ramdev , famous cardiologists like Dr Debi Shetty and Dr Sangeeta Reddy and others.
Framing strategies around the realistic grounds
Tourism has great economic potential and feeds around one seventh of the world’s employed population. Among several niches in the tourism sector, the medical and wellness segment constitutes an important component. It goes without saying that for successful promotion of medical tourism proper strategy needs to be drawn up. The strategic plans would recognize the following significant principles:
Brand development
This is an essential requirement where you market your medical tourism resources with a convincing brand name. Once your brand identity is acknowledged by the customers, money would flow in. You will be surprised to see a huge influx of customers flooding your market seeking quality medical treatment.
The emphasis should be on quality of treatment, promptness of service delivery and the level of dedication with which you discharge them.
Offering discounts and other marketing tricks are of course important but are not enough. Why do you think your clients are eager to visit your country for benefitting from medical tourism, flying across such a huge distance from different parts of the world? Their objective is always not on money saving or accessing cheap modes of medical treatment. Unless high quality treatments are delivered, the money-saving formula won’t work. Once you ensure them a combination of fair price and proper delivery while keeping the quality of service high, customers would simply rush in.
Framing strategies and realistic goals
The strategic guidelines for development of medical tourism would also focus on the following areas:
- Planning a proper medical destination and identification of quality hospitals and clinics
- Evaluation of a likely situation in which a valued customer would avail the medical and allied services
- Implementation of plans drawn up
- Marketing and establishing the brand value
- Performance evaluation of service providers
- Feedback on customer satisfaction
All that have been promised should be adhered to. There might be some limitations, so set up realistic targets when going for a marketing hype for medical tourism related services.
It is rather better to advertise keeping your constraints in view than to flaunt something which cannot be delivered. This would create negative customer response and build mistrust.
Best practices to adopt
The following best practices should be followed religiously to make any significant impact upon the global clientele on whom success of medical tourism of the country depends:
- Hospitals and clinics should ensure high competence level of their staffs. Their potential should be vouched for by supporting it with proper credentials.
- Medical tourism oriented services should include the quality of treatment as top priority aspect but it should not be only limited to the same. Options for sightseeing and entertainment opportunities if possible should also form a significant part of the package.
- Establishing performance benchmark for local hospitals and healthcare centers is necessary. It should be thoroughly monitored by some competitive authority.
- Hospitals may forge partnerships for bringing in their resources and strengths to serve foreign clients better.
Finally yet importantly, businesses looking forward to benefit from the new revolution should launch training and other educational programs for developing the service aspects of medical tourism, aside from carrying out several brand building exercises.
