BENGALURU: Bengaluru hasn’t been able to market itself to the world other than as a cost-effective destination for medical tourism, International Health Tourism Congress (IHTC) speakers said here on Friday.
This is true not only for the city or the state but the country also. Maria Todd, CEO of Mercury Healthcare International, said that India was selling itself short as a medical tourism destination.
“There is no coherence in the stories that different hospitals like Apollo, Aster and Medanta tell. India is so much more than cheap healthcare.
I don’t see that on LinkedIn, Facebook and other such public contact points with the world market. This country has the infrastructure and able doctors, but no tourism component in its marketing message,” said Todd.
Health Minister K R Ramesh Kumar said that he was in the process of bringing in a legislative framework mandating transparent pricing for all types of treatment in the private sector.
“Besides, we offer our centuries-old, tried and tested traditional healing therapies with magical benefits for even those who didn’t find relief in allopathic treatment,” he said, pitching Karnataka as a AYUSH destination.