Sri Lanka’s reawakened indigenous medicine and its interwoven culture and lifestyle will receive a major boost when Ayurveda specialists from all around the globe gather for a first of its kind Ayurveda symposium to be held on October 5, at the Siddhalepa Ayurveda Resort, Wadduwa.
Organised and hosted by Siddhalepa, the symposium will be held on the theme of Healing Benefits of Ayurveda. This symposium which is being held in cooperation with the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Health in Sri Lanka, has received the blessing from the two ministries, as a MICE event to promote medical tourism to Sri Lanka at a time when the country is experiencing a serious downturn in tourist arrivals,post April 21.
The global revival and new wave of “going back to nature and adapting alternate sources of medicine and cure for many health conditions, disabilities and disorders’ have put Ayurveda medical destinations firmly on the map of global travel.
The global medical tourism market was valued at USD 16,761 million in 2018, and it is expected to reach USD 27,247.6 million by 2024, while registering a CAGR of 8.5% during the forecast period, 2019-2023.
In Sri Lanka Ayurveda holiday packages are in popular demand with a certain segment of travelers whose typical profile is high spenders, who are unlikely to cancel their bookings as their holiday packages are combined with specific Ayurveda treatment. This segment transcends all age groups and demographics and attracts holiday makers with a medical package from all parts of the world.
Recent writings by a university professor, Dr. Suriya Gunasekera points out that indigenous medicine, or Hela Osu and Deshiya Chikithsa in Sri Lanka, is even older than Ayurveda medicine in India.
The healing powers of indigenous medicine is powerful and profound but sadly lost in time,its value diminishing as other alternate more recent medical practices usurped and overpowered it. Slowly but surely, indigenous medicine is making its revival globally, offering a holistic solution for a holiday with treatment, meditation and yoga exercise to their clientele. Sri Lanka is very much in the spotlight as a destination offering high end Ayurveda holidays to a growing number of global Ayurveda holiday seekers. The key objectives of the symposium are to position Sri Lanka as a premiere destination for Ayurveda medical tourism, with its rich bio diversity and a variety of medicinal plants, deep-rooted history of indigenous medicine and a tropical holiday destination in the Indian Ocean. The symposium also targets winning over foreign health insurance companies to include Ayurveda treatment in their international medical covers.
“It is both a wonderful opportunity and a huge challenge to be a co-host at this first-of-a- kind symposium where the world’s Ayurveda specialists’ attention will be focused on our nation and its great heritage in indigenous medicine. As a pioneer and leader in the Ayurveda industry, it will be our task to make it an annual event on the international Ayurveda calendar so that the profound benefits of our ancient discovery of indigenous medicine can be widespread among people of today and taken beyond to the next generations on a global platform,” MD, Siddhalepa, Asoka Hettigoda said.
Ayurveda practitioners from UK, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Austria, and USA along with a group of Sri Lankan professionals are among the eminent speakers at the symposium and will lead the discussion, while international media will be present to cover the event.