Major stakeholders at the Medical & Wellness Tourism Summit 2014 in New Delhi, India, discussed the need for a national accreditation body for the sector, in addition to improvements to infrastructure and a reduction in visa process complications for tourists.

The Summit, held by Progress Harmony Development on 25 July, highlighted a decline in quality health services at hospitals and wellness units in India, according to TravelBizmonitor.com.

Ayurveda, a 3,000 year-old Hindu healing technique was highlighted as a particular wellness concept that can be capitalised upon by the state.

Shaida Mohammad Abdali, ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to India, emphasised the fragility of the long-term healthcare business relationship between India and Afghanistan as he claimed Indian services sought out by Afghan patients are deteriorating, according to the website.

The president of medical travel company High Beam Global, Abhik Moitra, said the reason India is losing many of its international patients is due to bottlenecks, such as visa delays and the high cost of being treated in an Indian hospital. Moitra advised that medical tourism products should be marketed in traditional markets including Oman, Bangladesh and Ethiopia.

Incentive guidelines for promoting medical tourism in the country have been finalised but have not yet been published. According to the website, Parvez Dewan – the Tourism Secretary for the government of India – revealed that international medical summits will continue to be held by the state, as well as Market Development Assistance schemes for mainly small and medium national industry players that were initially launched in 2009.

Dewan also stated that the Ministry of Tourism has drafted guidelines for wellness tourism in particular, in addition to state-run initiatives including the distribution of marketing materials to target markets, the dedication of exhibition space for medical tourism stakeholders for events and the organisation of roadshows.

Nilanjan Sanyal, secretary for the Department of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddah and Homeopathy (AYUSH) – within the nation’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare – explained that the government will ensure that traditional medicines manufactured in India under the trademark of Ayurveda, Unani and the like will have to conform to prescriptions recently provided by the World Health Organisation (WHO) or face penalties, according to the website.