Tourism is one of the fastest growing industries in the world, with medical tourism leading the industry from the front. Medical tourism is over powering all other segments of tourism industry all across the world. Since medical tourism attracts the high-end tourists from developed and developing nations, it gives an economic boost to not only developed countries but also small or deprived regions, which otherwise are rich in traditional methods of health.
The main impact of medical tourism is that it brings direct foreign exchange earnings and contributes greatly to government revenues. It offers employment and business opportunities to the local people. Medical tourism is an enormous source of foreign exchange for destination economies because foreign medical tourists bring in foreign currency to pay for different goods and services they receive during their medical journey.
The fast growth of medical tourism worldwide helps in generating direct or indirect employment to the residential. Direct employment includes jobs, such as taxi services, hotels, restaurants and sale of memento, on the other indirect employment comprises the delivery of goods and different other services required by the wellness tourism industry.
It also contributes to government revenues. Local or state governments not only obtain taxes from people employed in medical tourism industry and through direct charges, green tax or departure duty, on medical tourists, but from various duties on goods and services offered to vacationers as well.
Most of the governments across the world are willing to invest in the development of local infrastructure to attract more foreign medical tourists from developed nations. They need to produce better roads, public transport system, and water and sewage systems to accommodate high-end wellness travelers. Better infrastructure leads to encourage tourism and increases the standard of life of the local residents.
Furthermore, some medical tourism destinations make an impact on foreign travelers and force them to visit the place again or even encourage them to become an enduring resident of that particular region or country, which eventually increases the demand of the accommodation and other essential commodities and thus overall development.
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