Health Tourism and Grey Tourism: A Virgin Opportunity for Economical growth of Nepal

Abstract

Health tourism has emerged as a growing fashion worldwide in last few decades. It is driven by the longing to travel to other countries to improve/maintain their health while experiencing the indigenous, cultural and tourist attractions of destinations.

Health tourism can be defined as traveling to foreign countries for no less than a day and no more than a year to get the treatment they need to get better. According to Magablih (2001), health tourism is the movement of a patient, with the purpose of getting services that help in recovering his ailment, or at least in stabilizing his medical case, outside his own country for a period of time not less than 24 hours and up to 1 year, each time, and the patient has no intent to work or reside permanently. 

Available Literatures shows two major branches of Health tourism viz. medical tourism and wellness tourism. Medical tourism involves traveling to foreign countries to seek modern medical treatments and procedures, including elective surgeries, dental treatments, cosmetic surgeries, transplant and specialized surgeries like cardiac surgery and orthopedic therapy.  

Wellness tourism, on the other hand, focuses on holistic health practices such as yoga, meditation, Ayurveda, and the use of local herbs. This branch emphasizes positive human functioning and preventive care rather than treating illness. Nepal is doing well in wellness tourism but has lot of possibilities in health and grey tourism^.