Ancient remedies and treatments are often referred to as alternative medicine. But as they predate modern medicine by many centuries, many would argue that modern medicine is the alternative to centuries old natural treatment that is frequently more holistic and long lasting than modern medicine.
Traditional medical, dental and cosmetic medical tourism in India relies heavily on being able to offer prices much lower than in other countries. But as scores of other countries go down the; “come to us as we are cheaper” road, some agencies and tourist bodies are concerned that selling on price advantage alone could be short-lived. Traditional remedies have survived the test of time, but people realise that they now have to be marketed with good accommodation, transport and food; the number of health tourists prepared to be treated in wooden huts and travel by yak is limited.
Following in the footsteps of the Kerala tourism industry, Himachal Pradesh is integrating tourism with ayurvedic treatment by setting up a hub of health tourism in north India. The state has introduced ayurvedic treatment packages at three of its premium hotels—- Holiday Home Shimla, Tea Bud Palampur and Chail Palace, that offer rejuvenating panchkarma therapy massage to tourists, besides treatment for aliments such as chronic conjunctivitis, corneal ulcer, dry eye syndrome, osteo and rheumatoid arthritis and mental disorders. The panchkarma therapies for these ailments will be provided under expert guidance of doctors and trained staff of special ayurveda centres being set up in the hotels.
Hotel Tea Bud at Palampur has been equipped to provide treatment for more serious aliments through therapies like abhyangam for improving concentration and mind power and netra-tarpan for eye and mental disorders. Special techniques developed and mastered by ayurveda experts of Kerala, pizhichil and the ancient classical therapy kayadhara have also been introduced for curing rheumatic diseases like arthritis, paralysis, hemiplegia and nervous disorders. Sarvakaya abhyangam, shiro dhara and skin treatments such as triposha, nalikerodakm and kartatika kepam are being offered at Shimla and Chail hotels.
Alternative medicine is based on completely natural methods; there is no usage of any chemicals, and there is no danger of any interference with the organic system. It uses a holistic approach as opposed to looking at a set of symptoms and just treating them.
Alternative medicine holds out immense potential in attracting medical tourists to India where medical tourism in alternative medicine has its ancestry in South India and North-Eastern India. Internationally famed for its natural remedies and therapies, Kerala’s schools of medicine have embraced siddha, naturopathy and ayurveda in treating their patients.
These traditional medical practices are expected to attract high-spending medical tourists from Europe, Australasia and the Middle East, particularly in the summer months. These tourists stay longer than those jetting in for a cheap surgical operation, and more importantly are likely to be regular returners, while conventional medical tourists stop coming one they have been cured.
Ayurveda, the Indian wisdom of medical knowledge, has boosted medical tourism in Kerala and helped draw a large number of tourists to the state, says the state’s health minister.
