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TN govt to promote Siddha system through Ayush wellness centres attached with TTDC hotels
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Peethaambaran Kunnathoor, Chennai
July 23 , 2021
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The tourism department under the Tamil Nadu government is mulling over possibilities to promote Siddha system through Ayush wellness centres attached with hotels and youth hostels run by the state tourism development corporation (TTDC) as part of boosting wellness tourism in post-Covid period, it is learnt.
It is further learnt that since the tourism industry was the major loser in the Covid crash and hotels were hit hard by the lockdowns, the state government is now thinking of promoting medical tourism and wellness tourism to make Tamil Nadu as a destination for wellness and other alternative therapies for body rejuvenation by attracting domestic and international tourists.
The efforts of the government to promote Ayush wellness centres with emphasis on Siddha system are not only with a view to promote the traditional system of the state but also to support the Union government’s initiative to position India globally as a wellness hub in post-Covid era.
To materialize this vision, the central government has formed a National Medical and Wellness Tourism Board under the union tourism ministry and drafted a ‘National Strategy and Roadmap for Medical and Wellness Tourism’. The ministry has now forwarded the draft to all states and Union territories for suggestions and feedback. The department of tourism in Tamil Nadu is planning to develop wellness centres on the basis of this national strategy and sought suggestions from industry stakeholders and Ayush institutions, sources informed.
Finding this move of the government to promote medical and wellness tourism as a good initiative for boosting traditional systems in the country, the Indian Medical Practitioners Cooperative Pharmacy and Stores Ltd (IMPCOPS), a multi-state cooperative society manufacturing Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani medicines, has apprised the TTDC of their interest to start Siddha wellness centres in all the hotels and youth hostels under the corporation. According to sources from IMPCOPS, discussion is going on with the tourism department for a tie-up with TTDC to provide all kinds of therapies in Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani systems in the wellness centres across the state.
Dr R Kannan, president of the IMPCOPS, said “the plan is now in the initial stage, but discussion is going on. A clear picture will come out only when the Covid-19 subsides fully. However, IMPCOPS has informed the tourism secretary about its willingness to start wellness centres in the tourism department hotels all over Tamil Nadu as and when needed. We have Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha therapies for wellness and rejuvenation of body”.
Sharing inputs with Pharmabiz, Dr. T Thirunarayanan, advisor to IMPCOPS, who mooted the idea with the state government to start Siddha wellness centres in TTDC hotels, says that the deal between TTDC and IMPCOPS will be a win-win one for both sides. According to him, the tourism department of Tamil Nadu is actually copying the model of health tourism implemented by the ‘God’s own country Kerala’ launching Ayurveda spas and wellness centres. On the lines of it, Siddha wellness centres and spas will be established in all the hotels in the medical tourism destinations. He added that there was a slight change in the way the wellness centres established by the central tourism department associated with Ayush ministry and the centres planned by Tamil Nadu government. The state government wants to promote Siddha system through health tourism for the benefit of the hotels and for the growth of the alternative healing system of the state.
He said IMPCOPS has given a broad proposal to the tourism secretary of Tamil Nadu expressing its interest to run Siddha health spas in all TTDC hotels.
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