India is fast becoming one of the world’s most exciting destinations for medical tourism. Travel agents, DMCs, wellness operators and healthcare facilitators will find this potential scaling up fast. Industry estimates put India’s medical tourism market at around USD 11-12 billion in 2026 and most projections say it would more than double by the early 2030s, buoyed by a growing pool of authorised facilities, quicker visa clearances and rising healthcare prices in the West. This is no more a specialised add-on for B2B partners but a category in its own right, as a key inbound travel sector.

The Numbers Behind the Growth

Foreign arrivals for medical treatment have climbed sharply in recent years, moving from under 200,000 in 2020 to well over 640,000 in 2024 — a rebound that reflects pent-up post-pandemic demand as much as India’s improving healthcare infrastructure. Bangladesh remains by far the largest source market, followed by Iraq, Uzbekistan and several African and Middle Eastern countries, though arrivals from Southeast Asia, the Gulf and even Western markets continue to grow steadily.

The core pitch to international patients is straightforward: treatment costs in India typically run 60-80% lower than in the US, UK or Europe, without a meaningful compromise on outcomes. Cardiac bypass surgery, joint replacements, organ transplants, oncology care and fertility treatments are among the most sought-after procedures, supported by a network of NABH- and JCI-accredited hospitals that continues to expand — with some projections pointing to over 2,000 NABH-accredited facilities by 2028.

Policy Tailwinds Trade Partners Should Track

A large part of this growth is being engineered deliberately, not left to chance. The government’s “Heal in India” campaign, run under the broader Incredible India umbrella, is aimed squarely at positioning the country as a structured, trusted global healthcare hub rather than a scattered collection of hospital brands competing independently overseas.

Three policy shifts matter most for trade partners building medical-value-travel (MVT) itineraries:

• Faster, wider visa access. The e-Medical Visa and e-Medical Attendant Visa now cover more than 165 countries, with approval timelines compressed to roughly 48-72 hours in many cases — a dramatic improvement over the multi-week waits that used to deter patients from committing to treatment in India.
• A dedicated AYUSH Visa category. Introduced in 2023 for patients seeking traditional Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy treatments, this visa is opening a distinct wellness-tourism channel alongside conventional medical travel — useful for operators positioning India for longer, holistic-care stays rather than single-procedure visits.
• A single-window Medical Value Travel portal. The government’s MVT portal is being upgraded toward real-time bed availability and, eventually, direct booking functionality. For facilitators and agents, this points toward a marketplace model that could reduce dependence on informal referral networks — worth watching closely as it may reshape commission structures over the next two years.

Beyond the Metros: New Hubs, New Capacity

While Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru remain the established medical tourism hubs — Chennai alone accounts for a significant share of the country’s international patient traffic — growth is beginning to spread into tier-2 and tier-3 cities as hospital groups expand capacity and infrastructure investment reaches beyond the metros. Recent budget proposals include plans for regional integrated healthcare complexes combining medical treatment, research and AYUSH facilities under one roof, alongside training programmes for paramedical and support staff in cross-cultural communication and foreign languages — a direct response to one of the sector’s persistent gaps.

Kerala continues to differentiate itself on the wellness side, pairing surgical care with Ayurvedic and holistic programming, while South India overall retains the largest share of medical tourism revenue nationally.

The Opportunity — and the Caveats — for B2B Partners

For inbound operators and healthcare facilitators, India’s pitch is increasingly bundled: affordable, accredited treatment paired with recovery-friendly travel experiences, multilingual support, and — increasingly — insurance tie-ups with source markets such as the Maldives, Oman and Mauritius that reduce out-of-pocket risk for patients.

That said, the sector’s growth remains uneven. Accredited hospital capacity is still concentrated in South and West India, leaving parts of the North-East and Central India underserved, and a shortage of specialised paramedical staff persists even where clinical capacity is strong. Trade partners building long-term medical travel packages should factor in these regional gaps, alongside the still-evolving nature of the MVT portal and visa infrastructure.

The takeaway: India’s medical tourism sector is shifting from an informal, referral-driven business to a more structured, policy-backed export category — and the window for trade partners to build early, credible partnerships with accredited hospitals and facilitation networks is open now, before the market consolidates further.