We need a revamped Incredible India campaign to lift tourism: HAI’s MP Bezbaruah

India saw 9.23 million foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) in 2023 – a significant increase from 6.44 million in 2022. While this number is still below the pre-pandemic peak of 10.93 million in 2019, it represents a strong recovery and a 48.6 per cent increase compared to 2022, the government said when the numbers were released in 2024.

The tourism sector is also a major contributor to India’s economy, generating Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEE) of ₹2.3 lakh crore in 2023, according to government figures.

Madan Prasad Bezbaruah, general secretary of, Hotel Association of India (HAI), the apex organization of the Indian Hospitality industry, spoke with LiveMint on challenges that Indian tourism faces and how the 100 million tourist goal in 2027 can be achieved.

Bezbaruah retired as the Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, and was recently a Member, North Eastern Council. He is also the honorary Permanent Representative of UN-WTO. Excerpts from the interview:

How do you explain the tourism scene in India today?

If you think of foreign tourist arrivals, you have to take it in two parts. One is, the Ministry of Tourism makes a difference between foreign tourist arrivals and international tourist arrivals. So, that means the number, including the NRIs, is called international tourist arrivals. But the extra foreign tourist arrivals are those that are not Indian tourists. So, that is the real test. So, if you look at 2019 foreign tourist arrivals, we have not increased. We have crossed 10 million in 2019 now, andwe are 9 million by 2024.

The most important part is domestic tourism. Domestic tourism growth, after Covid, has been phenomenal. For example, it was only 1,600 million visits. When you talk of tourists, it is not the number of people travelling, but the number of visits. For example, if they are staying in hotels or other places. The number was about 1,600. After COVID, it dropped to practically zero in 2020. But in 2021, it was 677 million. It jumped so much in one year. From zero to six and today, it is 2,500 million in 2023.

So, from 1,600 million pre-COVID to 2,500 million in 2023, the hotel association has made a Vision 2047, in which we have estimated that it can grow up to 15 billion.

15 billion by 2047, right?

Yes. This is for 2047. But this has been possible for two reasons. Firstly, in many places, of course, I can say that now, travelling is becoming more convenient. The air connectivity has increased quite a bit. The UDAN scheme has also improved quite a lot. The second thing is economic growth. The disposable income and the number of millionaires in India today, in dollar terms, are larger than in the USA. This is the amount of money circulating in the economy. So people are travelling.

But a lot of people prefer to travel abroad, right?

The number of people going out has become about 30 million annually. That’s the number, not visits. This is 30 million people going out, whereas we are getting only 9 million. Some people say that we should try to stop them. I don’t personally believe that.

Because people have money, they will go. They will travel. You cannot stop them. We have a sufficient number of domestic tourists here. Our efforts should be to see that we get more foreign tourists.

What about promoting domestic tourism?

If you look at the future, the most important part of the future is the destination level. If you want to keep Indians here, in their own country, you have to create more and more destinations. We have hundreds of destinations. But they have to be made, you know, you have to sell them. You have to ensure that connectivity is good. Accommodation has to be good with more hotels. That is the problem. You will be surprised to see the Indian tourism statistics, both foreign tourists as well as domestic tourists, 50 to 60% are confined in 5 to 6 states.

Prime Minister talks about tourism?

Yes, the Prime Minister keeps on saying that tourism is a pillar of development. So, as he says, tourism has to be considered part of the country’s economic development. The other point that the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister have mentioned, and the Ministry of Tourism has accepted, is a convergence of different departments in promotional tourism.

What are the challenges?

At this moment, we have about 1.8 lakh branded rooms and need about 4 lakh. Similarly, I think we also need non-branded hotels. We have about 1.5 million, and today’s requirement is 2.8 million. But the point is, we have to do a projection to 2047 and see how much we need. And when we do this, it is capital-intensive.

So I think the government needs to have a comprehensive policy about accommodation. It will be done by the industry, so, industry has to be encouraged. And for that, we have been asking two things. One is infrastructure status.

Whatever benefits you give to infrastructure, the same should be given to hospitality. This has been done for 50 new destinations.

What is your demand from the government?

First is, of course, infrastructure. Second is demand, which is not with the central government but with the states. The central government is sponsoring it. The benefits you give to industry should be given to the tourism sector. That will help with various taxes, electricity bills, and other things. That will have a tremendous effect on the rate of tourism in areas not yet covered.

We are not saying give tourism industrial status; give us the benefits. Our other demand is the generalisation of GST.

What is rationalisation that HCI is demanding?

We have also suggested that 12% was the GST for hotels with a premium of 7,500. That was done several years back. Today, that 7,500 is outdated. We have asked for 8,000.

What other measures can the government of the day take?

Look at the geopolitical situation in the world. The Pahalgam terror attack happened. We needed to highlight Pahalgam quite a lot worldwide. Our people went and talked about Pahalgam. Now, one side effect is that these days, people think India has a lot of problems. They will not know that Pahalgam is only one part, which is not affecting other parts of the world. We basically need a revamped Incredible India again.

How is that possible?

We need to push Incredible India, create more awareness. Incredible India will be of two types: one is to create awareness in the Indian market, second is to remove what the USA, for example, had, that advisory for its citizens.