THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala government is planning to tap the potential of ayurveda in the post-pandemic scenario by cashing in on the reputation of God's Own Country as a key destination for holistic health treatment. As the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has recently relaxed visa restrictions enabling foreigners to come to India for business, conference, employment, education, research and medical purposes among others, Kerala hopes to roll out the red carpet for overseas patients keen to visit the country to avail post Covid-19 ayurveda treatments or resume their course of therapies.
Informing the assembly, Tourism Minister Mohammed Riyaz said, "The tourism department would launch a special marketing campaign to promote ayurveda tourism of the state including in the WTM London international tourism fair. The department has already started classification of the wellness ayurveda treatment centres in the state in order to raise the quality of the services along with providing details of the centres for foreigners through the official platforms of Kerala tourism."
Speaking to The New Indian Express, Sajeev Kurup, national chairman of the FICCI Ayurveda task force and president of Ayurveda Promotion Society, said, "Kerala already has a good reputation in the ayurveda tourism sector globally. However, branding the Kerala model ayurveda treatment and marketing it on international platforms would certainly brighten the hopes of the sector further. Also, it would help the state revive the prospects of the tourism sector which is trying hard to stand on its feet after the Covid outbreak."
Two types of ayurveda treatment are being followed in Kerala – beach ayurveda, and traditional and authentic ayurveda. Beach ayurveda is mostly focused on leisure based massages and treatments while the traditional and authentic ayurveda brings about a convergence of science and traditional medicines together for therapeutic purposes.
Around 70 per cent of foreign tourists who reach here prefer beach ayurveda, while 30 per cent prefer traditional and authentic ayurveda. But the traditional and authentic ayurveda segment has been growing over the years despite first-timers often preferring beach ayurveda as it is leisure-based therapeutics. There are around 100-120 leading players including the segment leaders who mostly work as hospitals while others work as tourist wellness centres, said Sajeev.
There was around 95-100 per cent occupancy in beach ayurveda centres until 2018, while the occupancy rate was around 82-90 per cent in traditional and authentic ayurveda centres during the peak period of October to March. If Europeans were the main clients of these centres earlier, now the state has the most clients from post-Soviet countries like Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia etc and West Asia.