Ayush Ministry signs MoU with ITDC to promote medical value travel

New Delhi: The Ministry of Ayush has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC), a PSU under the Ministry of Tourism to work together for the promotion of Medical Value Travel in Ayurveda and other traditional systems of medicine.

Ministry of Ayush's Director Dr Shashi Ranjan Vidyarthi and ITDC's Director (Commercial and Marketing) Piyush Tiwari signed the MoU in presence of Ministry of Ayush's Special Secretary Pramod Kumar Pathak and other senior officials of Ministry of Ayush and ITDC.

According to the MoU, the Ministry of Ayush will provide training to the officials of ITDC to sensitize them about the Medical value of travel in Ayurveda and other traditional systems of medicine. It will identify tourist circuits, where there is immense scope to promote Medical value travel in Ayurveda and other traditional systems of medicine and provide all the technical know-how from time to time to ITDC.

ITDC on the suggestion of the Ministry of Ayush will include historical heritage sites of Indian systems of medicine in tourist destinations under "Knowledge Tourism and may develop films/literature useful to tourists. It will explore establishing Ayurveda and Yoga centres in the Hotels run by ITDC and will organise sensitization workshops in collaboration.

The implementation and progress of the MoU will be monitored by a Joint Working Group (JWG) co-chaired by representatives from Ayush Ministry and ITDC. The JWG will also identify the best practices adopted by Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand etc. to promote themselves as a preferred destination for medical value travel.

In the recently concluded First Health Working Group meeting of the G20 India presidency at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala G20 delegates deliberated on opportunities and challenges to promote MVT in India.

Medical Value Travel has seen significant growth in India in recent years. According to the report 'The Global Wellness Economy: Looking beyond COVID' by the Global Wellness Institute (GWI), the Global Wellness economy will grow at 9.9 percent annually. Ayush based healthcare & Wellness economy is estimated to grow to $70 billion by 2025.

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