Government’s across the world are urging citizens to take their vaccinations and follow strict safety precautions wherever they travel.
As the new OMICRON strain continues to affect travel by forcing governments to impose country-specific bans and restrictions, Government’s across the world are urging citizens to take their vaccinations and follow strict safety precautions wherever they travel.
This has heralded a new era in Tourism. Words like Workcation, Breathcation, staycation, revenge tourism etc have become the new norm and the industry has been able to carve out a new reason for people to come out of the four walls of their own houses. But, what has clicked the maximum in this genre is health tourism, which because of Corona, has been able to carve out its own niche Different from medical tourism this segment has been able to come out of shadows of its big brother aka medical tourism.
India has always been a staunch believer of its proven generational home grown remedies and natural healing systems, solutions derived out of ancient wisdom and under different heads including Naturopathy, Ayurveda, Unani, Homeopathy etc..
Sitting at home and the dangers that come with Corona has given more impetus for people to research the net for ways to improve their immunity. Since physical activities by people were reduced because of work from home and
restrictions from moving out of home. We see various lifestyle issues arising while working from home like depression, hypertension, diabetes, respiratory problems, obesity & many more because irregular food habits and lack of physical activities. With these issues arising and aggressive awareness campaigns by government and brands like us about the natural methods of living a healthy lifestyle has made consumers believe about living a healthy lifestyle and they have found a new means to come out. If not just for tourism , then for a vacation that not only gives the feeling of travel but one which also heals and improves ones overall being.
Today, people are opting for health travel instead of leisure travel so that they can relax and spend time with nature. Consumers are now opting for wellness retreats for relaxing in nature and availing therapies and opting for healthy lifestyle, For example our Ayurveda retreat, The Kairali Ayurvedic Healing Village , which reopened in September 2021, saw a 113% increase in enquiries compared to the pre covid era. We have seen an average increase in occupancy from its regular 89% every month from7 nights to 14 nights.
Other than offering Ayurveda true to its real form,, being 70% covered in natural surroundings has increased its appeal and is in great demand by domestic travellers. With this kind of trend and feedback from our consumers, we believe that post this pandemic the health tourism will rise further and the domestic traveller, armed with more knowledge for the ancient healing systems will be contributing more to this industry compared to international.
It is paramount to have a healthy lifestyle for all of us, preventive therapies are more important instead of focusing on curative therapies. Ayurvedic methods today are supporting everyone to have a preventive approach and we have seen this trend to be growing month on month. People have shown great interest in Ayurveda & Yoga. People have a great interest in naturopathy treatment.
So, with the government and private companies aligned together to promote AYUSH(Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, & Homeopathy), i have the complete confidence that health tourism will rise post this pandemic.
Abhilash K Ramesh is Executive Director at Kairali Ayurvedic Group
Source:- ETHospitalityWorld
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