Table of Contents

1. Project Aim....................................................................................................................................2

2. Objective.......................................................................................................................................2

3. Context...........................................................................................................................................2

3.1 Area of Research......................................................................................................................2

3.2 India present health care out look...........................................................................................3

3.3 Overview of medical tourism in India......................................................................................3

3.4 Overview of tourism in India...................................................................................................3

4. Literature Review..........................................................................................................................4

4.1 Introduction.............................................................................................................................4

4.2 Commercialization of Health Care...........................................................................................4

4.3 Socio-cultural Impacts of Tourism...........................................................................................5

4.4 Medical Tourism......................................................................................................................5

4.5 Potential markets for Medical Tourism...................................................................................6

4.6 Conclusion...............................................................................................................................7

5. METHODOLOGY.............................................................................................................................7

5.1 Introduction.............................................................................................................................7

5.2 Data Collection........................................................................................................................8

5.3 Sample Characteristics.............................................................................................................8

5.4 Data Analysis...........................................................................................................................9

6. Ethical Issues.................................................................................................................................9

7. Task plan......................................................................................................................................11

7.1 Task List.................................................................................................................................11

7.2 Gantt Chart............................................................................................................................13

8. References...................................................................................................................................14

1. Project Aim

To review the opportunities for health tourism in India.

2. Objective

The main objectives of this research are:

To review the tourism industry in India.

To review the healthcare industry in India.

To study and analyze the growth of the inbound patients to India from other

nations.

To see an opportunity for tourism and healthcare industry as a complimentary

product

To do a comparative study of medical tourism industry of India with other

growing nations.

To understand the contribution of medical tourism industry towards the growth

of other sectors in India.

To conclude as to the extent of opportunities for health tourism in India..

3. Context

3.1 Area of Research

This study will emphasize on the concept of medical tourism, its cause, demand,

importance, effectiveness and its impact on tourism and other sectors. It will also

involve understanding the contribution to country’s GDP, growth rate of ancillary

health services. The research will identify the contribution made to the employment

growth as a result of increasing jobs; study the effect on improvement in

infrastructure in healthcare industry. Besides this research will identify the impact on

the growth in number of doctors, trained healthcare professionals. The study will also

2

identify the extent of growth such as hospitality, airlines, and food manufacturing

industries due to tremendous growth of medical tourism in India. The research will

bring to light the increasing pressure on the medical institutions which will have to

produce more qualified and increased number of professionals to meet the demand.

This increased demand as a result of flourishing medical tourism industry will also

present an opportunity for further improvement in R&D and more effective methods

of treatment. The research focuses mainly on some key issues, review the health

care and tourism industry in India, evaluate the reasons that why inbound patients

coming for treatment from other part of the country.

3.2 India present health care out lookThe health care sector in India has increased its pace to be one of the fastest

growing industries. The privatization of the healthcare industry has carried with it

excellent facilities, considerable advancement in infrastructure offering world-class

treatments. India has a good number of top quality hospitals and treatments at very

low cost and has proved itself to be one of the best places for the medical treatment

in the world. Indian hospitals are gaining reputation internationally for standards in

healthcare industry, success rates and service levels. India has the technology and

highly skilled and experienced doctors along with state of the art facilities in

hospitals, nurses and paramedical staff to compete on a global level.

3.3 Overview of medical tourism in IndiaIndia is fast emerging as a preferred destination for medical tourism. Private medical

centres in the country stand out in all medical treatments and a large number of

patients from other nations are visiting India for treatments of ailments. Millions

throng visit every year for treatment and then recover while vacationing at the same

time. Low cost of treatment and high standard of medical care facility, along with

shorter waiting time for any treatment in India than any other part of the globe is one

of its distinct advantages. In addition, top-class medical expertise at attractive prices

is helping more and more Indian corporate hospitals to attract foreign patients.

3.4 Overview of tourism in IndiaThe tourism industry in India is considerable and dynamic, and the country is fast

evolving as a key global destination. India’s travel and tourism industry is one of

them most revenue generating industries in the country. A journey through Indian

3

States and cities highlights the cultural and the geographical diversity of India. A fair

number of business trips are also accounted for by the boom brought about by IT

companies in India which attracts foreigners to India, who will often add a weekend

break or even longer holiday.

4. Literature Review

4.1 Introduction

In the literature review we will discuss about the literature available on medical

tourism. Under this heading we will try to understand the relationship between

medical and tourism. The main aim of this literature review is to present a broad

definition of medical tourism and its cause and effect relationship. The research

study will then deal with few areas on medical tourism. Medical tourism is a growing

industry and relatively new topic in the health care marketing yet there has been lot

of research done on it. Medical tourism is defined as planned foreign travel for the

main purpose of obtaining high-quality, cost effective, non emergency medical

treatment. Smith & Farigone (2007) suggested that medical tourism is sometimes

considered as medical outsourcing. When the medical tourism plan includes a

vacation/tourist element. The cost of offshore medical treatment together with the

tourism experience is generally far less than the cost of domestic medical care

alone. India is considered one of the leading promoters of medical tourism and is

one of the cutting edge of medical outsourcing. Projections indicate medical tourism

will generate over one billion in revenue for the country. According to Fredrick, et al

(2006) from the McKinsey report,150,000 annually traveled for medical tourism, in

2002 in India and they estimated that medical tourism could bring as much as India

US$ 2.2 billion per year by 2012.

4.2 Commercialization of Health CareAccording to Mackintosh (2003) Health care systems can embed and reinforce

inequality within societies or, conversely, can be a platform for the public combating

of poverty and inequality. Despite the extensive case based research and publication

in recent years on markets in health care and the rise of the private sector (Bennett

4

et al (1997a) & (1997b), Bennett & Tangcharoensathien (1994), Bhatt (1993), Bloom

(1998), Leonard (2000), Segall et al (2000), Najandra et al (2001), and Turshen

(1998)), it is surprisingly difficult to find systematic comparative evidence on

ownership patterns in health care. Mackintosh (2003) suggested that

commercialization of health care includes privatisation that is the sale or transfer of

public assets to private ownership. It also encompasses the shift over time in the

balance of assets between public and private, through investment, that

characteristically results from health care market liberalisation (Semboja and

Thirkildsen 1995a).

4.3 Socio-cultural Impacts of TourismBrunt et al (1999) suggests that communities in many rural, coastal, and urban

destinations in Britain are affected somewhat by tourism. Its sociocultural effects in

these areas, however, are less well documented, as much of the academic literature

concentrates on the impacts in developing countries, or else evaluates them at a

more general level. Whereas, Krippendorf (1987) argues, the social effects are so

significant that they should be studied before anything else. Mathieson and Wall

(1982) point out that although many studies make passing reference to the existence

of social impacts, both positive and negative, most cast little light on their nature or

the means for their investigation.

According to Brunt et al (1999) the change in emphasis from hotel based (serviced)

accommodation to self catering having a significant bearing on the host perception of

tourism impacts. The finding here is that this change has effectively reduced the

socio-cultural impact of tourism on Dawlish's host community. The reason for this

seems to be the reduction in employment opportunities and a consequent reduction

in the community's economic dependence on tourism. Several studies have shown

that residents who are highly dependent on tourism-based employment are more

likely to exhibit favorable attitudes towards the industry (Allen and Davis(1988);

Lankford (1994); Milman & Pizam (1988); and Ryan(1991)). Murphy and Andressen

(1988) suggest that the farther the two are apart the more apathetic towards tourism

the resident becomes .However, another study conducted by Belisle and Hoy (1980)

concluded that the farther apart, the more negative the attitudes become.

5

4.4 Medical TourismAccording to Caballero-Danell & Mugomba (2006) the combination of surgery and

tourism seems to be a promising relatively new type of non-exclusive niche tourism.

Factors contributing to this phenomenon include long waiting lists for surgery, costly

healthcare, a natural progression within health tourism and globalisation. The

superficial view that tourists travel solely for pleasure seems somewhat redundant

given that today there many tourism typologies; sport, leisure-seeking, religion or

pilgrim pursuits, environmental, business amongst many others. Thus it is widely

acknowledged that there are many complex reasons why people elect to travel

(Dann, (2002). Sharpley (2003) consider Globalisation and improved communication

technology as externalities within the global economy that may help to develop this

kind of tourism since people from countries outside the hosting country, where health

tourism is pursued, can access information about health treatments abroad and even

consult with doctors and experts in foreign countries by video conferencing among

many other such communication media. Where as Caballero-Danell & Mugomba

(2006) suggest that reason for the increased levels of medical tourism may be the

result of a natural progression or well being pursuits within health tourism; spa

resorts, hiking trips (though these may fall in the sport tourism segment as well),

yoga, meditation camps and boot camps or weight-loss health farms. According to

Connell (2006) the term “medical tourism” involves specific medical intervention. As

a result to set further delimitations health tourism is the overall governing spectrum

that includes both wellness tourism and medical tourism. Simply put wellness

tourism and medical tourism are both subsets of health tourism of which the latter is

the focus of this study.

4.5 Potential markets for Medical TourismCaballero-Danell & Mugomba (2006) commented that India is one of the countries

that have deliberately set out to be a dominant medical tourism destination.

According to Connell (2006), “India is capitalizing on its low costs and highly trained

doctors to appeal to these medical tourists”. Caballero-Danell & Mugomba (2006)

again pointed out the outcome of this deliberate policy show that in 2004 India had

1.8 million inbound medical tourists, making the industry’s contribution to the

economy an estimated USD333million. The growth of medical tourism is a growing

phenomenon in other south Asian countries such as Singapore and Thailand where

6

medical tourism is used boost the arrivals to their beach resorts. Other well-

established medical tourism markets contributing to regional Asia’s dominance are

Thailand and South Korea, whose contributions are predicated to set the medical

tourism industry past the US$4 billion mark by 2012 Where as India’s medical

tourism business operations are growing at 30 per cent per year with projected

revenues of at least US$2.2 billion a year by 2012. (Asia’s Growth Industry, 2006).

4.6 ConclusionThe most crucial part involved in Medical Tourism is the decision making process

that is made complex by the sensitive nature of the product – shopping for surgery

abroad. For potential entrants to gain a significant market share insight on what

motivates the consumer to choose to a cardiac surgery for example in India over the

cardiac surgery in US will provide insight on what are considered value added

benefits in the medical tourism. This research will look into the needs for evidences

which medical outsourcing integrated with tourism will have on the treatment cost,

access to facilities and how it will enhance the quality of health care.

5. METHODOLOGY

5.1 IntroductionThis section will seek to explain the many ways in which data would be collected,

sample size, the data analysis method and the limitations of the methodology. The

art of research as a scientific investigation could be defined as a scientific and

systematic search for pertinent information on specific topic (Kothari, 2005). The

data analyzed will be qualitative in nature. A qualitative research is one in which the

inquirer often makes knowledge claims based primarily on constructivist perspective

or participatory perspective or both (John, 2003). According to Bryman & Bell (2007)

there are five major types of qualitative research; Ethnography/participant

observation, Qualitative interviewing, focus group, language-based approach and

collective of texts and documents. Gummesson (2000) argues that qualitative

methodology provide powerful tools for research in management and business

subjects. He added that universities and business schools often oppose their use

and classify them as second-rate arguing that qualitative methods are used only to a

limited degree. Smith et. al. (2003) also buttressed on the way qualitative data is

analyzed. They pointed out that either the researcher goes by numbers or goes by

7

feel and intuition aiming to produce common or contradictory themes and patterns

from the data which can be used as a basis of interpretation. The main emphasis of

the project would be mostly based on feel and ideas observed with the analyzed

data.

5.2 Data CollectionFor this research the data will be collected through administered questionnaires,

these questionnaires, 300 in number, will be sent to India through e-mail. The

number of questionnaires will represent a sample of the whole population. By using

questionnaires it will provide the fastest means of reaching a large sample and for

this research a larger sample would allow the researcher to analyze the response of

a many respondents. As I will be collecting data from these identified respondents it

will be easier to analyze the collected data because questionnaires will restrict the

responses to a large extent. Furthermore, questionnaires are the most often used

technique because many people are aware of this method of data collection and

everyone has had some kind of previous experience of filling up a questionnaire. As

a result it will not make them feel alienated when they are asked to respond using a

questionnaire. By using a questionnaire it would be very easy for me to eliminate the

middle man bias, the opinion of the researcher is not dominant and the response of

the respondent is free from any sort of bias. When respondents receive a

questionnaire it is up to them to fill it whenever they want to there is no pressure of

time they can fill it whenever they are free.

The reason for approaching the research study only through desk based research

and structured interviewing is because the data from the results of feasibility study

on the target audience conducted would be primarily used to gauge and understand

the requirement. There is no further study required to understand the needs of the

audience as the project focuses more on the medical tourism in India which requires

more study from existing research theories & concepts.

5.3 Sample CharacteristicsI have been in the medical industry from last 9 years; worked with public and private

hospitals. This experience will help me in gaining the access with the well known

hospitals and health care agents in India. The sample will consist of 300

respondents. The Research (both qualitative and quantitative) will be undertaking

8

with consideration of the patients from abroad, drawn from different hospitals in

different parts of cities in India as well as medical doctors would also be interviewed

from different hospitals. A letter will be sent to all the respondents before the

questionnaires are sent to them. The letter will contain a brief on the topic and the

purpose of the research, the letter will inform them about the dates when the

questionnaires will be delivered and a date will be mentioned on which they would be

expected to return the filled questionnaire.

5.4 Data AnalysisThe data will be analyzed by using Microsoft excel and statistical package for social

sciences. The first data feeding will be done through Microsoft excel and then for the

statistical analysis statistical package for social sciences will be used. Once the data

has been collected through questionnaires they will be coded and the data will be fed

through Microsoft excel. With the help of statistical package for social sciences,

regression analysis, mean, median and mode will then be calculated.

6. Ethical IssuesResearch ethics relates to questions about how we formulate and clarify our

research topic, design our research and gain access, collect data, process and store

our data, analyze data and write up our research findings in a moral and responsible

way (Saunders, M et. al., 2007)

The possible circumstances were ethical issues could arise when handling the

project are

Protection of the confidentiality of data provided, such as the feasibility data

findings, documents obtained from the organisation and confidential information

obtained from the internet over secured gateways. All data collected for this

purpose would be used judiciously and either returned back to the source or

destroyed at the end of the project.

Privacy of participants attending the interviews – The privacy of participants

involved if it is requested by them would be maintained as a matter of great

importance.

The necessary consent would be obtained from each participants before an

undertaking each interview

9

Extra caution would be employed to avoid causing embarrassment; stress to the

participants due to the way the interview is being conducted.

All stakeholders would be informed before any information is shared over the

internet or any other electronic medium where possibility of data violation could

be raised

The above but covers the major ethical issue concerning this project study.

10