Home ／ Insights on entering the Indian market
2026.03.26
インドの医療ツーリズム市場は、世界でも最も急速に成長している分野の一つです。市場規模は2025年に約111億〜180億ドル、2026年には123億〜204億ドルに拡大し、2031年には221億ドル以上に達すると予測されています（調査機関により推計値の幅が大きく、低位推計では年率12%超となる一方、高位推計を起点にすると成長率は大きく下がります）。医療目的の外国人到着者数は、2020年の18万2,945人から2024年には64万4,387人へと3.5倍まで戻りました。2019年のピーク（約69万7,000人）にはまだ届いていません。
Several factors are driving this growth. First, medical costs are 60-80% lower than in the US and Europe. Key specialties include cardiac surgery, orthopedics, oncology, fertility treatment, and cosmetic surgery, with cardiovascular treatment accounting for about 30% of revenue. Second, there is a concentration of high-quality, internationally accredited medical institutions; India ranks among the top in Asia for the number of hospitals holding JCI (Joint Commission International) accreditation. Third, government policy support: the 2025-26 budget announced eased visa regulations for medical tourists, which is expected to drive an additional 14-15% growth.
The rapid growth of medical tourism offers direct opportunities for the food business. The following three areas are especially important.
The first area: therapeutic and nutrition management meals for hospitals. India's major hospital chains (Apollo Hospitals, Fortis Healthcare, Max Healthcare, and others) serve meals to hundreds of thousands of inpatients every year. Medical-specific meal services, such as post-surgical recovery meals, diabetic meals, renal meals, and cardiac meals, are a growth area. Japan's quality-control know-how in hospital catering and its recipe development skills for therapeutic meals offer high added value to Indian hospitals. In particular, the concept of "nutrition therapy," which improves treatment outcomes for patients, is rapidly taking hold at Indian medical institutions as well.
The second area: meal needs during medical travelers' stays. Medical travelers typically stay for two to four weeks, during which their meal needs are diverse. Patients from Arab countries seek halal-compliant food, those from Europe and the US want familiar Western food, and those from Southeast Asia look for their home cuisines. Around hospitals in Delhi, Chennai, and Mumbai in particular, demand is high for meal services that cater to multiple nationalities, and Japanese restaurants and Japanese food catering services could also present new business opportunities.
The third area: post-discharge recovery meals and health foods. Post-surgical patients often spend a recovery period before returning home, creating meal demand at hotels and serviced apartments. Demand for high-protein, low-fat recovery meals and immunity-boosting functional foods is rising in step with the growth of medical tourism.
Wellness tourism is inseparably linked to India's medical tourism. India's wellness tourism market is projected to grow from roughly $28.9 billion in 2025 to $43.8 billion by 2031 (a CAGR of 7.18%), forming a huge market segment distinct from medical tourism.
India is the birthplace of Ayurveda, and the integration of traditional medicine with modern medicine (integrative medicine) is attracting international attention. At Ayurvedic resorts in Kerala, traditional dietary therapy (pathya) forms the core of treatment programs, opening up the possibility of new wellness programs that combine this with Japanese functional foods and superfoods.
Specifically, one could envision services that combine personalized nutrition based on the Ayurvedic concept of "dosha" (constitution type) with Japan's evidence-based functional foods. There is also an opportunity in product development that combines traditional Indian herbs such as turmeric, ashwagandha, and tulsi (holy basil) with Japanese ingredients such as matcha, fermented foods, and seaweed products.
India's medical tourism is concentrated mainly in five major cities: Delhi NCR, Chennai, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad. Understanding the characteristics of each city makes it possible to design a more refined market entry strategy.
Delhi NCR: Home to some of the country's largest medical institutions, including AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences), Medanta, and Max Healthcare. Many medical travelers come from the Middle East and Central Asia, so demand for halal food is high. South Delhi and Gurugram already host numerous multinational restaurants, giving the food business a solid foundation there.
Chennai: Often called the "medical tourism capital of India" and home to Apollo Hospitals. Many patients come from Africa and Southeast Asia. The surrounding food service market is thriving, making it a city with particularly large opportunities for hospital catering businesses.
Mumbai: Rich in highly specialized medical institutions such as Hinduja Hospital, Reliance Hospital, and Tata Memorial Hospital. Many affluent patients come from the Gulf states, making this a market with high demand for premium food services.
Bengaluru: Home to Narayana Health, Manipal Hospitals, and others. Its close ties to the IT industry create abundant opportunities to partner with health-tech and food-tech startups.
Hyderabad: A hub for the pharmaceutical industry, this city also has strong potential as a research and development base for functional foods and supplements.
There are several regulatory points to keep in mind when entering the food business related to medical tourism. Meals served inside hospitals must comply not only with FSSAI's Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, but also with state medical facility regulations. Therapeutic meals and nutritional supplements in particular may fall under FSSAI's Health Supplements and Nutraceuticals Regulations, requiring product registration and compliance with labeling rules.
In multi-religious, multi-ethnic India, halal certification, veg/non-veg marking, and accommodation of religious dietary restrictions are also essential. Hospital food businesses are typically expected to offer menus tailored to patients' religious backgrounds. Introducing HACCP- or ISO 22000-based food safety management systems, a strength of Japanese companies, is a major selling point for Indian hospital chains.
Here we outline concrete approaches for Japanese food companies entering the medical tourism market.
Hospital catering contracting and consulting: Japan's hospital catering maintains a globally high standard of quality, and a B2B model that provides this know-how to Indian hospital chains is the approach with the lowest barrier to entry. A realistic approach is to start with a consulting contract and gradually expand the scope of services.
Sale of functional foods and supplements: As wellness tourism expands, demand for Japanese functional foods and supplements is steadily growing. There are many product categories where Japan has a strength, including collagen, probiotics, and glucosamine.
Japanese food services for medical travelers: There is also an opportunity in models that operate Japanese restaurants or Japanese bento delivery services around hospitals in Delhi and Chennai. Patients undergoing treatment and their families seek high-quality, hygienic meals, and the clean, healthy image of Japanese food is a powerful point of differentiation.
The number of foreign arrivals for medical purposes has increased sharply in recent years. Growth is being driven by medical costs that are far lower than in the West, a concentration of high-quality, internationally accredited medical institutions, and government policy support. Visa regulations for medical tourists are also being eased, and further growth is expected.
There are mainly three opportunities: therapeutic and nutrition management meals such as post-surgical recovery meals and diabetic meals served by hospitals; the multinational meal needs of medical travelers who stay for extended periods; and post-discharge recovery meals and immunity-boosting health foods. Japan's quality-control know-how in hospital catering and its recipe development skills for therapeutic meals offer high added value to Indian hospitals.
India is the birthplace of Ayurveda, and there is potential to combine Japanese functional foods with resorts centered on traditional dietary therapy. Opportunities include services that combine personalized nutrition based on constitution-type concepts with Japan's evidence-based functional foods, and product development that combines traditional Indian herbs with matcha, fermented foods, and similar ingredients.
Medical tourism is concentrated in the major cities of Delhi NCR, Chennai, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad. Food needs and business opportunities differ by city; for example, cities with many travelers from the Middle East and Central Asia have high demand for halal food, while cities that host major hospital chain headquarters offer larger opportunities for hospital catering.
Meals served inside hospitals must comply not only with FSSAI's Food Safety and Standards Act but also with state medical facility regulations. Therapeutic meals and supplements may fall under the Health Supplements and Nutraceuticals Regulations, requiring product registration and compliance with labeling rules. In multi-religious, multi-ethnic India, halal certification, veg/non-veg marking, and accommodation of religious dietary restrictions are also essential.
The approach with the lowest barrier to entry is a B2B consulting model that provides Indian hospital chains with Japan's high-quality hospital catering know-how. A realistic approach is to start with a consulting contract and gradually expand the scope of services. Introducing HACCP- or ISO 22000-based food safety management systems is a powerful selling point for Indian hospital chains.
The rapid growth of India's medical tourism market is opening up new business areas for food companies that were previously hard to see. Hospital catering, wellness foods, and multinational food services, fields positioned at the intersection of healthcare and food, are markets where Japanese companies' quality-control technology and food safety know-how can be put to best use. Entering the medical tourism market is not merely a niche strategy; it is a strategic choice that rides the broader growth trend of health and wellness consumption in India.
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