Assessing tourist perception and service delivery standards in Kerala’s ayurveda-based health tourism

Abstract

The fastest growing segment of global tourism is health tourism particularly in Ayurveda. Ayurveda treatment tourism has seen a rise in to health-consciousness, lifestyle change and demand for overall wellness. Kerala has become an important Ayurveda based destination for Indian and foreigners, earning the monicker the Ayurveda capital of India. This article demonstrates the perception and level of satisfaction of the tourists about the ayurveda based tourism services in Kerala with the help of a structured quantitative research design. A total of 300 respondents were surveyed, using a systematic sampling technique, chosen from the major Ayurveda based destinations like Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Kozhikode and Palakkad. The study was conducted over a brand new dataset that includes dimensions like accommodation quality, efficacy, hygiene, professionalism, accessibility, price rationality, overall gratification, and more. To understand how tourists saw this purpose, descriptive statistics and percentage analysis were carried out. Tourists have a very positive view on Kerala Ayurveda Tourism they seem to hold Ayurveda, natural healing, and peacefulness in high regard. However, there were certain pricing gaps with long waiting time for treatment and ineffective communication of Ayurveda based staff. Everything depends on the quality of the treatment applied for the overall satisfaction. Besides, having a nice, neat and friendly staff also matters a lot. This study has added to tourism literature by providing new destination specific insights from Kerala. In addition, this study makes suggestions to strengthen Ayurveda based services, enhance customer experience and promote competitiveness of the state on a global platform. The results are meant to help policymakers, Ayurveda centres, tourism promoters and other industry stakeholders in strategizing interventions to improve service delivery and sustain growth in Ayurveda tourism.