‘This business isn’t won on price alone’: Anand Mahindra flags India’s medical tourism gap – BusinessToday
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‘This business isn’t won on price alone’: Anand Mahindra flags India’s medical tourism gap
‘This business isn’t won on price alone’: Anand Mahindra flags India’s medical tourism gap
India’s medical tourism flows are dominated by neighbouring <a href="https://abs<a href="https://absafricatv.com/nhc-foods-to-build-fruit-juice-plant-in-liberia-west-africa/” title=”NHC Foods to Build Fruit Juice Plant in Liberia, West Africa”>africatv.com/china-stresses-law-enforcement-cooperation-with-east-african-countries/” title=”China stresses law enforcement cooperation with East African countries”>countries, particularly Bangladesh. In 2025, Bangladesh accounted for 325,127 medical-purpose arrivals, followed by Iraq (30,989), Uzbekistan (13,699), Somalia (11,506), Turkmenistan (10,231), Oman (9,738) and Kenya (9,357).
India’s medical tourism boom: Anand Mahindra says price alone won’t win patients
India has a major cost advantage in healthcare, but Anand Mahindra believes the country needs to sell something more than cheaper medical procedures to become a global medical tourism leader: trust and a seamless patient experience.
Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra, in a recent post on X (formally twitter), said India’s cost advantage over Western countries is “enormous” across several procedures. Yet, he noted, India ranks only 10th globally among medical tourism destinations, behind countries including Thailand, Turkey, Malaysia and Singapore.
“Because this business isn’t won on price alone. It’s won on trust,” Mahindra said, highlighting everything from the airport and taxi ride to hospital wards, food, service, hospitality and discharge as potential “moments of truth”.
India’s medical tourism market set to nearly double
The opportunity is already significant. Government estimates peg India’s medical tourism market at around $8.7 billion in 2025, projected to reach $16.2 billion by 2030.
India recorded 507,244 foreign arrivals for medical purposes in 2025, underscoring the growing demand for its healthcare services.
The global Medical Value Travel market is also expanding rapidly. Government estimates put it at around $115.6 billion in 2022, with the market projected to reach about $286.1 billion by 2030.
For India, this creates an opportunity spanning hospitals, pharmaceuticals, avices
Bangladesh is India’s biggest medical tourism market
India’s medical tourism flows are dominated by neighbouring countries, particularly Bangladesh.
In 2025, Bangladesh accounted for 325,127 medical-purpose arrivals, followed by Iraq (30,989), Uzbekistan (13,699), Somalia (11,506), Turkmenistan (10,231), Oman (9,738) and Kenya (9,357).
The concentration is even more pronounced in historical data. A CRISIL analysis based on 2022 figures found that South Asia accounted for about 71.8% of India’s medical tourists, followed by West Asia at 12.4% and Africa at 10.4%. Bangladesh alone accounted for around 69%.
The next opportunity for India could therefore lie in expanding beyond established South Asian markets into West Asia and Africa, where patients often face high treatment costs or limited access to specialised care.
India’s proposition rests on a combination of lower treatment costs, a large pool of medical specialists, advanced hospitals and growing healthcare infrastructure.
Major cities such as Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Kolkata have developed specialised hospitals offering cardiac care, oncology, orthopaedics, organ transplantation and advanced and robotic surgery.
The government is also promoting Medical Value Travel alongside Ayurveda, Yoga and other AYUSH systems. E-medical and e-medical attendant visas are now available to citizens of 172 countries, helping reduce one of the logistical barriers for overseas patients.
Missing piece: a seamless patient journey
For Mahindra, however, medical tourism cannot stop at the hospital.
A foreign patient experiences the entire journey — from airport arrival and immigration to transportation, accommodation, hospital admission, treatment, food, payments, follow-up and departure.
“One bad link” can undermine the price advantage, he argued.
https://x.com/anandmahindra/status/2098627305174421742
Mahindra suggested creating a concierge layer for medical tourism that manages the patient’s journey from arrival to departure. This could integrate airport transfers, accommodation, multilingual assistance, appointments, medical records, payments, attendant support and post-treatment follow-up.
Such an ecosystem would also allow India to capture value beyond the medical procedure itself.
Goa, Vizag and new health hubs
Mahindra identified Goa and Visakhapatnam as potential medical tourism hubs because of their air connectivity and hospitality infrastructure. He suggested bringing hospitals and specialists into these destinations.
He also argued that emerging cities such as Amaravati and GIFT City should plan health districts early.
But building hospitals is easier than creating a deep pool of specialists. “Doctors don’t follow master plans, they follow medical colleges,” Mahindra said, pointing to the roughly 15-year timeline needed to build strong medical education and specialist ecosystems.
India already has the core ingredients to become a global medical tourism powerhouse. But its relatively modest global ranking suggests that cost alone is not enough.
The next phase will require stronger integration between healthcare, hospitality, transport, insurance, government services and aftercare. With the market projected to reach $16.2 billion by 2030, the question for India is no longer simply how cheaply it can deliver surgery or treatment.
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Published on:Sep 12, 2026 12:31 PM IST
