The Medical Tourism Industry in the BRIC Nations: An Indian Analysis

The Medical Tourism Industry in the BRIC Nations: An Indian Analysis

Ajay Kumar Dogra, Pooja Dogra
Copyright: © 2018 |Pages: 17
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-3920-9.ch017
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Abstract

Despite BRIC's roaring economic growth over the past decade, and its citizens' growing belief that it is finally ready to join the league of global superpowers by the end of 2020. With the progress of the IT revolution, advances in transportation and communication technology, the evolution of financial techniques, and the easing of restrictions on trade and investment, there has been a geometric increase in the international movement of people, products, money and information in the BRIC nations. The economic dynamism has led the emerging economies (BRIC countries) to diversify their business activities from a global perspective, and attempt to create optimal global value chains. Demand for tourism in Brazil, Russia, India and China is expected to grow in tandem with rapid economic growth. These nations are rich in natural and manmade resources and should cope quite well and have tremendous opportunities for the growth of tourism especially medical tourism between these nations. This chapter will explore BRIC member countries, on how they can cooperate to further promote the BRIC Vision and establish a viable healthcare initiative focusing on Indian medical tourism that will serve as a blueprint and model for other economies.
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Medical Tourism Industry: An Overview

The origin of Medical tourism has been around for centuries, though the concept of travelling for medical procedure has gained in recent years. In, fact the concept can be traced back to Greek pilgrims, who travelled to the small Mediterranean town of Epidauria in the Saronic Gulf. This area was the sanctuary of Asclepios, the god of healing, so Epidauria emerged as the world’s first recorded medical travel destination (Balaban & Marano, 2010). Some studies indicate that medical tourism had a place in the civilizations of the Egyptians, Romans, Indian, Chinees and Japanese in early 4,000 BC.

World Tourism Organization (2014) clearly put forward “Attach importance to medical tourism, build a healthy life” in “Tourism Agenda 21”. It defined medical tourism as tourist services which take medical care, sickness and health, health and recreation as the main themes.

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