Journal Press India^®

Author Details ( * ) denotes Corresponding author

Medical Tourism is not a new phenomenon, but it is taking on a completely different persona to what was earlier envisaged. Today, with the globalization of information and the empowerment of the consumer, medical tourism involves individuals acting as a consumer, making their own decisions regarding their health needs, deciphering how they can best be treated, and then finding the most appropriate provider. Paper intends to deal with how countries across the world are competing on quality and price, how they are getting more competitive and developing their own health tourism strategy. Today, medical tourism is no longer about cheaper procedures and holiday trips. Paper would also correlate the impact of quality of doctors and technology, and care models that countries are pursuing on rise of health tourism in respective countries. The central pillar of the paper would revolve around how disruption caused in the aviation industry via low cost airlines and social media has impacted the flow of patients from developed nations to other regions making medical tourism a considerable norm rather than something reserved only for the affluent. Paper would also throw a brief light on alternative medicine such as Ayurveda, acupuncture and homeopathy that are gaining popularity among medical tourists.

Keywords

Medical Tourism; Cheaper Procedures; Aviation Industry; Ayurveda.

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