Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Promoting medical tourism in a big way

Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Leela Hotels, Palaces and Resorts is all set to promote medical tourism in a big way by tapping the American market for ayurvedic-massage-based therapies.

Peter J. Leitgeb, president of Hotel Leelaventure, told presspersons here on Monday that business travellers from the U.S. accounted for a large number of guests at the company’s hotels in Bangalore and Mumbai.

The company was trying to work out a communication and branding campaign to build its presence in the U.S. market and promote the properties as a destination for Ayurveda treatments. The company was budgeting around $80,000 for this process.

“There is also a growing interest in alternative medicine in the U.S., and in the first phase, the corporate segment would be tapped by us.”

Mr. Leitgeb said the company was looking at promoting its hotels, especially the one at Kovalam, as a destination for ayurvedic-oil-massage-based therapies and medical tourism.

C.P. Krishnan Nair, chairman of Leela Hotels, Palaces and Resorts, said the company had decided to add 10 “ayurveda suites” in the hotel property at Goa in view of the heavy demand for ayurveda therapies.

Each suite would cost Rs. 1 crore.

The demand for ayurvedic therapies in the spa at the company’s hotel in Bangalore was high.

G. Gopinathan, a New York-based clinical professor in neurology, who hails from the capital, has agreed to work with the company to promote ayurveda in the U.S. Dr. Gopinathan said there was immense potential to promote ayurvedic oil massages in the U.S., as they had a sound physiological base and could be explained to a modern scientific audience.

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