INDIAN TOURISM INDUSTRY: AN INSIGHT

During the celebration of 73rd Independence Day, Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi addressed the nation from the Red Fort and underlined that India ‘has much to offer’ to tourists. The government has been focusing on the tourism industry since 2002 with the launch of campaign Incredible India campaign.

India has seen a continuous growth in position climbing from 65th position in 2013 to 40th in 2017 in World Economic Forum's (WEF) travel and tourism competitiveness index. The direct contribution of Travel & Tourism to GDP in 2017 stood at Rs 5.94 lakh crore which is 3.3 per cent of GDP. This is expected to grow at 7.1 per annum to reach Rs 12.67 lakh crore by 2028.

The tourism industry has generated 26,148,000 jobs directly in 2017, 5 per cent of total employment, growing by 2.8 per cent in 2018 to reach 26,883,000 jobs. These jobs include employment by hotels, travel agents, airlines and any other passenger transportation services. It also includes the activities of restaurant and leisure industries which is directly supported by tourists. The growth of direct jobs in the industry is expected to grow at 2.1 per annum over next ten years and account for 33,195,000 jobs by 2028.

Our Prime Minister has been the key ambassador in promoting tourism initiatives. He has not only focused on encouraging the foreign visitors but also promoted the domestic tourism. Ministry of Tourism has renewed its new National Tourism Policy and took measures aimed at creating more jobs and increasing the country’s share in global tourism market. India also plans to launch Incredible India 2.0 campaign.

According to the official data, number of foreign tourists coming to India has also increased from 8.80 million in 2016 to 10.56 million (provisional) in 2018. Most arrivals have been for business including search of jobs. Tamil Nadu tops the chart followed by Maharashtra and Delhi in terms of number of tourists.

Government has focused on many strategies in last few years and welcomed every initiative to promote travel and tourism in country. One such strategy was focusing on Chinese tourists. In China, around 14 crore citizens go on travel every year of which only 2.5 lakh arrive in India. If the country can achieve 1 per cent of the total tourist that will stand at 14 lakh Chinese coming to India. This will give a major boost to the industry. Apart from this the government is also focusing on tourists from Russia, Gulf countries and South East Asia apart from United States and Europe. These countries have huge potential.