When Skål International Mysuru handed its Tourism Excellence Award for wellness to the Indus Valley Ayurvedic Centre at this year’s Mysore Travel Mart, it put a stamp on something that has been quietly building for a quarter of a century. Mysuru is no longer only a city of the palace, the yoga schools and the Dasara calendar. It has become a place the world travels to in order to heal, and IVAC is the destination doing most to make that case.The centre has completed more than four lakh treatment journeys and drawn guests from over 65 countries, by its own count, pulling patients from Europe, West Asia and North America to a single campus on the city’s edge. Those are the numbers of an institution. And they point to a shift in the map of Indian wellness tourism, where one southern state has long held the story to itself.It is undeniable that in the post-Covid pandemic, Ayurveda and Naturopathy gained immense popularity across the globe with people looking for alternative systems of healthcare and medication. This is exactly what the founder of Indus Valley Ayurvedic Centre Dr Talavane Krishna was striving for, “to bring Ayurveda to the forefront of modern medicine by serving people with ancient wisdom of Ayurveda in modern concepts.”The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recognised the importance of traditional systems of medicines with its theme catalysing ancient wisdom and modern science for the health of people and the planet. Nearly 88 per cent of all countries use traditional medicines, often finding solutions in Ayurveda1.
The question of trust
Ayurveda has long drawn interest from travellers; building confidence in its practice and outcomes is a more nuanced undertaking. Foreign guests increasingly want proof before they commit to a residential programme, and a sector built on word of mouth has struggled to give it to them.What distinguishes the place, though, is its language. IVAC talks in clinical terms. Its founder frames the difference as “the honesty to tell you where Ayurveda treats.” In a market thick with cure-all promises, that restraint has become its own kind of marketing.
What stays in the city?
The visitors are the visible half of the story. The quieter half is work. Running residential wellness programmes on this scale demands trained therapists, a skilled job that cannot be sent offshore and that draws its recruits from Mysuru and the districts around it.The centre’s associated Foundation trains therapists of its own, and that is where the local stakes sit. As the wellness circuit grows, so does its appetite for young people, who can be taught a craft and moved into steady, skilled employment. A guest’s stay is a transaction that ends at checkout. A therapist’s career is a livelihood that stays in the city long after.
A second capital in the making
India’s Ayurveda-tourism map has carried a single dominant name for decades. IVAC’s rise suggests a second one is forming, and not by imitation. Mysuru’s advantage is its own: a heritage-and-yoga tourism base that wellness can attach to, a physician-led model that reassures internationalA more visible role from the state could give this momentum further direction. While Karnataka has successfully positioned its technology sector on the global stage, wellness tourism has yet to receive a comparable push through dedicated branding, streamlined medical travel processes or curated circuits connecting established centres. In the meantime, institutions such as IVAC continue to build recognition through their own work and reputation, gradually strengthening Mysuru’s identity as a wellness destination.
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Taken alone, the award on IVAC’s wall is a local honour. Set against the guests, the credentials and the numbers behind it, it reads as an early marker of Mysuru’s arrival as India’s next Ayurveda capital, and of the centre that helped put it there.Visit the website for more details.References: Disclaimer – The above content is non-editorial, and TIL hereby disclaims any and all warranties, expressed or implied, relating to it, and does not guarantee, vouch for or necessarily endorse any of the content.