Shri Sahay said a person who travels for wellness is generally healthy, but seeks therapies to maintain his or her well being. The Minister was of the opinion that the increasing demand for this type of activity shows immense possibility for potential investors in tourism. Underling the importance of safe and dignified tourism he said initiatives in this regards will be taken to ensure that Indian Tourism follows international standards of safe tourism practices, applicable for both tourists and local residents.

Speaking on the occasion the Minister of State for Tourism Shri Sultan Ahmed said it is essential for destinations to create unique travel experiences on an emotional, physical, intellectual, and even spiritual level. He said Wellness has been the USP of Indian Tourism. The Minister was of the opinion that wellness tourism is now creating major opportunities for destinations, resorts, spas, hotels and other smaller businesses throughout the tourism industry.

Speaking on the sidelines of the function the union tourism Minister informed that his ministry is in the process of sanctioning Rs. 25 crore for developing tourism infrastructure in and around Deoghar in Jharkhand. He said that a road map for developing tourism sector on a large scale in Bihar is also under consideration of his Ministry

The Union Tourism Minister Shri Subodh Kant Sahay also released the guidelines for wellness centres on the occasion. These guidelines have been developed by National Board for Accreditation of Hospitals & Healthcare Services (NABH) and approved by Department of AYUSH, Ministry of Health & Family welfare. The wellness centres accredited as per these guidelines will give level of confidence to the tourist and those availing the services of wellness tourism service providers that they are dealing with someone who has certain international standards in place. Also this would provide for effective regulation of the functioning of the wellness centres.

Accreditation Standards for Wellness Centers provide framework for quality of care for customers and quality improvement for Wellness Centers. The standards help to build a quality culture at all level and across all the functions of Wellness Centre. NABH Standards has ten chapters incorporating 84 standards and 396 objective elements. Accreditation Standards for Wellness Centers contains complete set of standards for evaluation of Wellness Centers for grant of accreditation. The standards focus on all aspects of service delivery like customer rights and education, infection control practices, trained and experienced staff, infrastructure, environment safety, processes and controls and statutory and regulatory compliances.

The new standards look into various aspects of functioning of wellness certes such as Identifying and correcting unhygienic service delivery practices and laying down a system for continuous monitoring of quality of services being provided, to prevent catching infections from the staff or the other customers by ensuring cleaning and disinfection practices for linen, equipments etc., display of tariff list to ensure uniform pricing policy, safety within the wellness center with provisions to deal with fire and non fire emergencies and training and development of staff including verification and evaluation of credentials like education, training and experience.

The workshop on promotion of wellness tourism has been organized with the active participation of Department of AYUSH, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Services (NABH) to define the areas of development in the wellness industry and strategize with the help of the industry for defining the road map for the government for next few years.

Over 150 participants representing the captains of the wellness industry are attending the workshop to deliberate on the issues concerning Ayurveda wellness Centers, Spas, Skincare Centers, Cosmetic Care Centers, Gymnasiums, Fitness Centers, preventive health care Centers, yoga centers etc. The objective of this workshop is to evolve a road map for formulating strategies for development and promotion of wellness tourism to position India as the leading destination for wellness tourism, incorporating the country’s natural attributes like Yoga, Ayurveda , Siddha, well developed Spas etc., increase visitation, length of stay and expenditure by wellness visitors and increased professionalism and excellence amongst those delivering wellness experience.