Prospects and Challenges of Medical Tourism

Abstract

Medical tourism has seen rapid growth in the past few years in Manipur from neighboring states as well as countries, particularly Myanmar. Manipur is also trying to be on the medical tourism map of India with eminent medical practitioners across the state trying to take advantage of the Act East Policy of the Indian Government. Manipur witnessed a significant investment in healthcare over the last decade. With the emergence of some of the eminent hospitals and research institutes with advanced technology in the state, the diagnosis of many of the complicated medical problems are done effectively with minimal cost. The prospect looks bright, but challenges such as tag of being a ‘disturbed area' and complex visa procedures for foreign nationals could constraints to the exponential growth of medical tourism in Manipur, especially from neighboring countries. The chapter is an attempt to study the prospects and challenges of medical tourism in Manipur. The study is exploratory in nature with insights from available literature and data from various sources.