Travel Industry Can Earn 25 PC More Forex if India Is Promoted Overseas

Chennai: Travel industry can earn at least 25 per cent more foreign exchange earnings if the government promotes India as a tourist and medical travel destination abroad and simplifies the visa norms. Southeast Asian countries are increasingly attracting tourists from the Western world while the Iran war has hit the travel route to India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently appealed to citizens to avoid unnecessary overseas travel to conserve foreign exchange. “The travel industry can earn at least 25 per cent more foreign exchange earnings if the government aggressively promotes the country as a tourist destination globally,” he said.

Instead, if it restricts travel, it will hit the livelihood of more than five crore people, who are directly or indirectly dependent on the tourism and travel industry, including ticketing agents, tour operators, hospitality workers and transport providers.

Any slowdown in travel demand would impact profitability across the sector, affecting salaries, recruitment and spending power. “Salary increases will not be there, new recruitment will definitely not happen, and people hired recently may be asked to join later when conditions improve,” he said.

Mehra warned that reduced incomes among those employed in tourism could eventually affect overall economic growth. “When the spending power of those involved in the travel trade goes down, I anticipate about a 10 per cent impact,” he said.

India has still not regained its pre-pandemic foreign tourist arrival levels. Mehra said inbound tourism remains below March 2020 levels largely because of inadequate overseas promotion.

“There is no publicity abroad at all. Unless we make noise internationally and show our presence, tourists are not going to come,” he said.

He identified expensive airfares and high hotel tariffs as additional challenges.

According to him, India is missing a major opportunity at a time when geopolitical tensions in West Asia are forcing many global travellers to rethink routes and destinations. Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam have aggressively marketed themselves in India and abroad after the pandemic, enabling them to capture a larger share of the tourism market.

Indian airlines are being forced to take longer routes because of airspace restrictions over Pakistan and the need to avoid conflict zones around Iran and parts of West Asia.

MICE tourism is also shifting from Dubai to Bangkok, Bali and Malaysia during the crisis as the governments are providing incentives to convention organisers. “India has the best infrastructure for MICE tourism, but we are losing out because there are no incentives from the government,” he said.

The tourism industry has also urged the government to simplify India’s visa procedures to attract more foreign tourists.

Mehra said foreign travellers often find Indian visa forms difficult and complicated. He also recommended extending the advance application window for 30-day tourist visas from the current 30 days to at least 60 days. Providing GST refunds to tourists for products purchased from India will also make them spend more in India.

India can also aggressively expand medical tourism. India already has strong healthcare infrastructure and globally competitive hospitals, which works faster than the hospitals in the West but lacks coordinated promotion and easier medical travel procedures.