Tag Archives: CII

According to data provided by Ministry of Home Affairs, the number of medical visas issued by India in 2016 rose by 45 per cent over 2015. India issued more than 1.78 lakh medical visas in 2016, including for follow up treatment, as against 1.22 lakh in 2015, according to the data. A Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) report titled “India Services Sector—A Multi-trillion Dollar Opportunity for Global Symbiotic Growth 2017” stated that the presence of world-class hospitals and skilled medical professionals has strengthened India’s position as a preferred destination for medical tourism. Treatment for major surgeries in India costs only a fraction—in some cases as low as 10 per cent of that in developed countries. “Majority of the patients coming to India for treatment are from the Middle East, Africa, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Maldives, Pakistan, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. India’s cost advantage will significantly open doors to the US and Europe over future, due to lower cost than the US and almost half that of Europe.” Dental tourism accounts for 10 per cent of the medical tourism and the government is keen to promote it. “India provides competitive cost advantage at one tenth of the cost of the US and Europe. By 2020, medical tourism industry of India is expected to touch $8 billion,” the report said. Source: Livemint

The Ministry of Tourism has partnered with CII for the Global Travel Mart and have changed the dates of the event from January to now February 1-4, 2017, according to an engagement letter by Federation of Associations of Indian Travel and Hospitality (FAITH) sent to its members. The letter reads that FAITH was in discussion with MOT and had prepared a concept statement for the global travel mart with them. Two key highlights of that, were, if that mart were not in partnership with FAITH, then it would be competitively bid out to PCOs who have created & run world scale tourism events, so as to start off with a Big Indian Tourism Bang. The other key requisite was the hosting date of the mart, to be in the shoulder period of 10th-14th January 2017. However, as of 30th June MOT has joined hands with CII and the dates have been now shifted to February. FAITH has addressed its concerns to the ministry regarding partnering with them and its member associations, and will be discussing it again.

In a first, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has partnered with State Government to set up separate tourism bureaus for Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Tirupati. Besides tourism promotion, CII wanted to play a facilitator’s role to woo investments in industries, IT and promote MSME and skill development in a big way in AP post-bifurcation. This figured prominently at the strategy session of CII to finalise its roadmap for 2016-17. CII-AP chairman G.S. Shiv Kumar and vice-chairman J.S.R.K. Prasad told reporters on Saturday. CII committee on tourism convener Neeraj Sarda said the first bureau would be set up for promoting tourism in Visakhapatnam in September. He said a comprehensive website would be created by involving all the stakeholders in the bureau to woo investors and facilitate development of a complete ecosystem. Sarda said building brand image for Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Tirupati was their top priority. A CII team comprising Shiv Kumar and Sarda recently visited Puducherry to find out the reasons for their success story.