Unfortunately, we have barely scratched the surface of this potential and unless we see dramatic steps to realise the true potentials, this may well turn out to be another big opportunity that passes us by.
The World Economic Forum had estimated that 2024 would see travel and tourism scale back to pre-COVID 2019 levels. Moreover, the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) had noted that the post-pandemic recovery was led by domestic tourism, while international travel lagged. Puneet Chhatwal, CEO, The Indian Hotels Company, recently told CNBC-TV18 that foreign tourist arrivals in India remain a weak spot and India’s numbers lag behind those of Asian competitors like Vietnam and Thailand. With international travel expected to pick-up in 2025, the time for India to cease the opportunity is now.
Big action for big ambition
India’s @2047 Vision targets 100 million foreign tourist arrivals by 2047, going up to 150 million arrivals in an optimistic scenario, up from under 11 million in FY2020. The plan targets expanding spend per foreign traveller to $4,500 from $2,700. These are good goals to set, but getting there is another task altogether. Quite like the China+1 opportunity, India has the potential to realise these goals and surpass them, but in a competitive world it would take a great deal of planning, policy support and on-ground execution to achieve this target.
Also read | Maha Kumbh projected to generate up to ₹2 lakh crore in Uttar Pradesh: Yogi Adityanath
The World Economic Forum’s Tourism and Travel Development Index sees the US, Spain and Japan as best placed to attract foreign tourists as international travel recovers from the COVID phase. India ranks a lowly 39th on the index, out of a total 119 countries ranked. And while it saw an improvement in ranking on some counts like prioritisation, safety and security, health and hygiene, its rank would have been much worse had it not been for its 6th rank on one parameter, Travel & Tourism Resources, that scores India on its potential for tourism.
It’s important to note that there are dismal ranks on parameters like prioritisation of tourism (82nd), safety and security (91st), health and hygiene (119th) and enabling environment (102nd). Unless India can move rapidly up the ranks on such counts, it will not be able to realise its true tourism potential.
