Kerala’s medical value travel (MVT) segment has significantly progressed in recent years. Still, a significantly large market offered by Bangladesh appears to have not been tapped adequately.

Very few know that Bangladesh contributes the largest share of India’s health tourism sector – more than 30 per cent of the patients and approximately 50 per cent of the revenues. Exact statistics of patients coming each year for treatment are unavailable, but MVT operators say that well over 5 lakh patients come from Bangladesh to India each year.

Despite Kerala’s reputation in medical value travel and its strength in Ayurveda, Kerala has not lived up to its potential in tapping this market, say MVT sector players.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Kerala Health Tourism International Conference and Exhibition organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, AKM Atiqul Haque, Minister (Commercial) of the Bangladesh High Commission, said Kerala ought to hold sustained promotion in Bangladesh to attract medical value travellers to the state.

“Each year, about 1 lakh Bangladeshis travel to Singapore for treatment. That gives an indication of the magnitude of the MVT market that Kerala can tap”, said Mihir Vora, Founder-CEO of Mumbai-based Magnus Medi.

Vora said one of the impediments for Bangladesh MVTs in Kerala was the language issue. Former Indian Ambassador Venu Rajamony said that it was ironic, given that Kerala has tens of thousands of migrant workers from Bengal.

Rajamony said few places had the kind of global linkages that Kerala had, and that the State should take advantage of this. “The world is diverse, and the American, European, African and Asian markets are all different. We need to understand the world in its diversity, do our homework, understand the areas where we are deficient, and learn from best-cases to know what we need to attract many more medical value travellers than we do today”, the former Ambassador said.

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