Sociology of Medical Tourism

Book excerpt: Tourism is a global phenomenon. Because it is an important, even vital, source of income for many countries in the world. Its importance was recognized in the Manila Declaration on World Tourism of 1980 as “an activity essential to the life of nations because of its direct effects on the social, cultural, educational, and economic sectors of national societies and on their international relations and its indirect effects on the development of allied industries like transport, hotel etc.”.Medical Tourism is one form of tourisms and which means a journey that patients take from one country to another country to get cost effective and efficient medical treatment, followed by a great vacation at some of the most beautiful locations. India is one of the major players in this industry. Currently, it hosts about 1.27 million medical tourists from industrialized countries like UK, USA and Canada and from its neighboring countries such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and China. Its foreign exchange earnings from medical tourism are estimated to be around US $ 1.8 billion. The estimated number of medial tourists in India in 2015 would be between 1.21 million and 2.78 million. The estimated revenue would lie between US $ 1719 million to US $ 3964 million in 2015. Medical tourism industry in India has potential to contribute around 25 percent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product in the next five years, if fully tapped.The present book titled Sociology of Medical Tourism highlights various dimensions, identifies different issues and suggests further development of this multimillion dollar industry in India in an in-depth manner. Medical Tourism is one of the most important trust areas which emerge in the past century and because of its multiple level of use it also become subject matter of research in various subjects including Sociology. It is hoped that this book, with its wide-ranging and in-depth content, critical insights and detailed analysis of the concept, prove to be immensely resourceful to the readers. I also assure that this book should be proven an informative referral for those who are working and doing research in the field of medical tourism.