November 1, 2025

Kerala is sitting on a gold mine of opportunities! At the Kerala Health Tourism and Global Ayurveda Summit and Expo, experts highlighted how the state can earn big by growing its medical value travel (MVT) sector. MVT means people travelling just to get medical or wellness treatments. This business is growing fast all over the world, but Kerala has only grabbed a small piece of this tasty pie so far. The experts said that Kerala can easily attract more medical tourists and give a big boost to its tourism sector. K. Saravana Kumar, Consul General of Malaysia in Chennai, spoke at the event's closing ceremony. Dennis Sebastian, Vice President and Head of Health Solutions at RGA Reinsurance Company Middle East, pointed out that around 1,500 patients come to India from Gulf Cooperation Countries every month alone. He also mentioned, “The very fact the National Health Service in the UK had an average 18-week waiting period revealed another opportunity for the State.” This shows how Kerala can attract patients looking for quicker treatment. In 2024, about 7.4 lakh foreign visitors came to Kerala for medical and wellness reasons. Surprisingly, 60-70% of them chose Ayurveda treatments or wellness programs! Ayurvedic medical value tourism made a massive ₹13,500 crore in 2024, up from ₹10,800 crore the previous year. Besides Ayurveda, Kerala is also earning about ₹40 crore every month from modern medical tourists, adding up to ₹480 crore yearly. PM Varier, Convenor of the CII Kerala Ayurveda Panel, said that medical tourists have come from 65 different countries to Kerala. Hari N Namboothiri, Chairman of Sreedhareeyam Group, added, “Large numbers of MVTs are now discovering Kerala as a medical value tourism destination, particularly from Maldives, Oman, African nations, Japan, the Middle East and South Asian countries.” The huge variety of visitors shows Kerala’s global appeal. The two-day summit attracted more than 10,000 people from the healthcare industry, researchers, and academicians. It included exciting sessions on Ayurveda, modern medicine, and health insurance. The event ended with K. Saravana Kumar presiding over the valedictory ceremony. Looking ahead, Saji Kumar, Chairman of Global Ayurveda Summit 2025, promised a bigger, better next event featuring top scientific experts. He said, “The next edition of Kerala Medical Value Travel and Global Ayurveda Summit will feature leading scientific experts, keeping in mind the need for more validation of findings in the Ayurveda sector.” This shows Kerala’s strong focus on blending tradition with science to grow further. With medical value travel booming worldwide, Kerala is ready to shine brighter as a hub for health and wellness tourists. The future looks very bright for the state’s medical tourism!

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Tags: Kerala, Medical Value Travel, Ayurveda, Health Tourism, Global Ayurveda Summit, Medical Tourism Revenue,