Medical Tourism And Rural Karnataka – An Ethnic Medicinal Perspective

There are many major forms of tourism activities are prevailing in India. These are cultural tourism, rural tourism, ecotourism, adventure tourism, religious or pilgrimage tourism, beach tourism, MICE tourism etc. However, India could able to leave its footprint in one of the most specialized form of tourism, i. e. Medical Tourism. It is form of tourism commonly referring to the travel of people to another country for the purpose of obtaining medical treatment in that country. Today, India is one of the fastest growing medical tourism destinations in the world. Medical tourism in the 21st century has grown rapidly and became one of the most astonishing niches tourism markets in the world. The objective of the paper is to identify analyze major the healthcare centres or facilities available in Karnataka and their potentials to grow as famous medical tourism destination. The article covers various medicinal practices prevailing in Karnataka along with their ethnicity. The paper also brings out the perceived benefits to the indigenous community and to the area from the medical tourism growth in the region. The careful observations, consensus and discussion with the academicians and employees of few of the service providers revealed the realistic state of affairs in terms of ecotourism business. Medical tourism occurs when consumers elect to travel across international borders with the intention to receiving some form of medical treatments. However, the varieties of medical treatments available in rural areas of the state such as yoga and meditation, naturopathy, ayurveda etc are not visited regularly by the foreign tourists. Thus, it becomes difficult to consider such destinations under medical tourism. It required hard niche marketing approach towards promoting these ethnic medicinal treatments.