Medical tourism yet to recover as West Asia conflict disrupts patient travel

Chennai: Travel disruptions stemming from the West Asia conflict continue to weigh on India's medical tourism sector, with overseas patient inflows yet to return to earlier levels. The region accounts for a substantial share of overseas patients visiting India's nearly $9-billion medical tourism market.

Although hospital operators have begun to see early signs of improvement from the region, international patient arrivals remain below the levels recorded before the conflict escalated earlier this year. Meanwhile, healthcare companies have cautioned that the prolonged geopolitical turmoil could also lead to higher operating costs, adding further pressure on the sector.

For instance, West Asia accounts for the largest share (30%) of Fortis Healthcare's international business. "During the first two-three days after the war began, the impact was not immediately evident, as many patients had already travelled to India. However, new patient arrivals dropped sharply in March before slowly recovering in April and May," its group COO Anil Vinayak said. The healthcare company observes that the ongoing crisis had a visible impact on international patient movement, particularly from key markets in the Gulf and neighbouring regions. "Since the conflict escalated at the end of Feb 2026, there has been a slowdown in patient inquiries, and actual arrivals owing to flight disruptions, visa/travel uncertainty, and safety concerns. International footfall across cities saw a decline of around 30% during the initial period, with patient movement from West Asia specifically dropping sharply in early March," he added.

HealthCare Global Enterprises (HCG) has seen a decline of 60%–70% in patient volumes from countries in West Asia (between March and May 2026 compared with the same period last year). "International patient arrivals have started improving from April onwards. However, they are yet to return to pre-Feb 2026 levels," its AVP & group head international business, Vinayak Nayak said.

Another healthcare major Max Healthcare said it witnessed a decline in patient arrivals from several West Asian countries, especially Iraq, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. "Our overall international patient volumes and revenue continues to report healthy growth despite the war in the Middle East. This growth is supported by stronger inflows from other international markets, which offset the decline from the affected regions," a company spokesperson said.

Queried about the impact of the West Asia crisis, Madhu Sasidhar, president & CEO, Apollo Hospitals said, "We have not seen a material decrease in patients coming to us from Middle East countries. On the other hand, I think the bigger impact is going to be on the cost side, both inflationary as well as currency related."