KOCHI: Kerala Health Tourism 2006 got off to a start with K.C. Venugopal, Minister for Tourism, inaugurating the international conference and exhibition on Health Tourism here on Friday.

Ayurveda and Kerala are already well known abroad and people have already taken the initiative to club their medical care needs with tourism, said Mr. Venugopal addressing the inaugural session of the conference organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry in association the Department of Tourism.

The boom in private medical services is a result of such infrastructure to support medical tourism, he said.

Realising the potential in this sector, the State had declared 2006-07 as the year of Medical Tourism, he said.

Speakers at various sessions spoke about the international experiences and best practices found elsewhere, standardisation and quality care and role of insurance companies in promoting medical tourism.

Philip Augustine, Managing Director of Lakeshore Hospital, presented the theme of the conference. Prem Nair, Medical Director, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, B. Suman, Director, Department of Tourism; C. Bharat Chandran, Managing Director, Sree Uthradom Thirunal Hospital, and Y.P. Bhatia, Chairman, Accreditation Committee on Healthcare, were some of the speakers during various sessions.

G. Bakthavalsalam, Chairman, Healthcare Sub-Committee, CII Southern Region, and other experts from various hospitals will speak about the preparedness of Indian Hospitals in Saturday's session.

A panel discussion will be held with seven experts speaking on preferred healthcare destinations.

A three-day exhibition on medical tourism that began on Friday had 52 participants from medical care industry and travel and tourism industry.

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