According to CareEdge Ratings, the instability in Bangladesh might result in a 10-15% decrease in the number of medical tourists traveling to India in the year 2024. Between fifty and sixty percent of India’s medical tourism is accounted for by Bangladesh. Unrest caused a significant number of passengers to either cancel or postpone their vacations. Medicament tourists from all over the world are drawn to India because of its affordable treatment charges and high-quality services.
Because of the continued instability, Bangladesh is a significant contributor to India’s medical tourism industry, and this might result in a decrease in the number of visitors. According to CareEdge Ratings, if the instability continues, there is a possibility that the number of visitors coming from Bangladesh may decrease by ten to fifteen percent in the year 2024. The neighboring country of Bangladesh is responsible for around fifty to sixty percent of the entire foreign medical tourism that India receives.
According to a study published by the rating agency, a sizeable percentage of these tourists have either decided not to go to India at all or have postponed their trips there. The healthcare system in India is well-known all over the globe, and it has been experiencing substantial expansion. This expansion has been spurred by the country’s affordable treatment rates, high-quality medical facilities and services, and comparatively low waiting times for treatment. India is a country that is ranked among the top 10 nations in the world for medical tourism, and it is particularly popular among countries in South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. “Nearly 70-80 per cent of medical tourists arriving in India are from Bangladesh and Middle East countries.”
The rating agency said that one of the main aspects that is driving this is the cultural and linguistic commonalities, as well as the availability of sophisticated facilities, excellent treatment at cheap pricing, and access to advanced facilities. The Middle East, Myanmar, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan are all surpassed by Bangladesh as the biggest contributor to medical tourism among neighboring nations. Bangladesh in particular stands out as the main contributor.
“The significance of Bangladesh’s role in the Indian medical tourism industry is brought into focus by this.” The current socio-political turmoil in Bangladesh, on the other hand, presents a threat to this thriving sector of the business. According to estimations provided by CareEdge, the number of foreign medical tourists who visited India in 2023 saw a rise of around 33 percent compared to the previous year. Taking into account the decline in foot traffic from Bangladesh and the gradual return of the country to normality by the end of 2024, CareEdge Ratings anticipates that the industry will see a little effect.
Despite the fact that 2021 saw a certain amount of expansion in medical tourism as a result of the major effect that the Covid-19 pandemic had the year before, it remained relatively low due to the remaining travel restrictions that were in place in some regions of that year. The year 2022, on the other hand, was a sign of a substantial resurgence, with medical tourism almost reaching the levels it had been at before the Covid outbreak. This trend continued in 2023. It is anticipated that India’s attempt to provide the capability of e-medical visas to people from dozens of countries would further promote medical tourism in the years to come.