Healthy returns

Mahender Thakur is rather enjoying his time on an automatic massage bed at a medical expo in Beijing. "The rolling and pushing motion really relaxes my back," says Thakur, a deputy general manager at Cox & Kings, an  India-based provider of luxury holidays and tailor-made tours.

After the massage session, Thakur moves on to the other booths at the second Beijing International Health Tourism Expo, which ran from Sept 7 to 9. 

These booths showcase a variety of health tourism products and resources from more than 20 provinces and regions around China.

"I want to have a look around and then make some purchases," Thakur says.

His company currently brings around 5,000 Indian health tour visitors to China every year, and is looking to identify more health tourism resources at the expo and show them to potential customers in his home country.