In order to promote wellness tourism, the government today issued guidelines for defining the roadmap for the industry as well as accreditation of wellness centres in the country.

“The guidelines will be applicable to all wellness centres across the country,” the Tourism Minister, Mr Subodh Kant Sahai, said here at a workshop on wellness tourism.

The new guidelines would be looking into aspects of functioning of wellness centres like identifying and correcting unhygienic service delivery practices and laying down a system for continuous monitoring of quality of services being provided.

Defining the concept of wellness, Mr Sahai said, “It has been interpreted from several perspectives and we in India should relate it to our ancient system of living the tradition that is still preserved namely the constant, conscious pursuit of living life to its fullest in harmony with the environment.”

He said India has an ancient heritage of healing but is facing severe competition from several destinations who are positioning themselves as leading destinations for wellness tourism. “We should put our acts together and promote wellness tourism aggressively in the international and domestic markets,” he added.

Making a distinction between the health and the wellness aspects, Minister said medical tourism involves those visitors with medical conditions who travel for treatment of ailments.

A person who travels for wellness is generally healthy but seeks therapies to maintain his or her well-being.

The accreditation standards are prepared by National Accreditation Standards for Hospitals and Healthcare providers and approved by Department of Ayush.

Only accredited service providers will be eligible for any assistance from the Tourism Ministry.

Among others, the guidelines will also look into the hygienic issue to prevent catching infections from the staff or the other customers by ensuring cleaning and disinfection practices for linen and equipment.

Centres have to display services and tariff list that the spa is providing to ensure uniform pricing policy, as per the guidelines.

Taking note of mushrooming of massage parlours, Sahai said, “There should be a mechanism to check whether all prescribed norms are being followed or not.”

On the implementation of guidelines, he said, “I think it should be mandatory as we are dealing directly with tourists and they should have good experience.

“But initially we are seeking voluntary implementation. Later on we may opt for enforcing the guidelines.”

The Ministry is developing Haridwar-Rishikesh as well as Puducherry as wellness centres to give visitors a complete experience which is physically healing, spirituality enriching and mentally rejuvenating.

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