A Comparison between the Perception of Indian and Foreign Healthcare Consumers of Ayurveda

Today, the changing lifestyles, job stress, and environmental pollutions all together made men’s life failed to achieve harmony within the body, mind, and soul. In this scenario, Ayurveda has placed in a rescue role to bring back those lives through a peaceful healthcare system. 1000 years aged Ayurveda has achieved a legacy in largely practicing in the Indian subcontinents, whereas Kerala, a south Indian state is offering diverse therapies and techniques to alleviate different aches, pains, and chronic diseases through the Ayurveda. For the reason that other state people, as well as foreigners, are visiting Kerala with the intention of getting cured through a whole-body treatment. The study targeted to determine the perceptional differences of Indian as well as foreign healthcare consumers on the performance-based service quality and patient satisfaction from the Ayurveda. Based on the convenient sampling technique, a structured questionnaire was distributed among the 20 Ayurveda hospitals where 404 domestic and 82 foreigners have participated in the survey. Independent sample t-test and Analysis of variance were the statistical techniques used and the results highlighted that the perception of Indian healthcare consumers are different from foreigners with respect to the marital status and education commonly under both construct of service quality and patient satisfaction, then age and gender groups particularly for the same constructs respectively. The study is timely with an empirical proposal to the managers to make understand how different people are thinking and perceiving their services and which dimensions need more focus in the future to improve the healthcare system of Ayurveda