‘There’s room for tourism growth’

Suman Billa, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, highlights India’s potential for growth in travel and tourism sector and elaborates on the need for speedier visas, more direct flights, knocking down barriers and make travel easier and cost-effective.

Surbhi Sharma

Suman Billa, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, said India shares a strong bilateral relationship with other countries and travel between India and rest of the world is growing, but still there is scope for growth in the tourism sector. “There is a lot of room for growth and progress. Even though the numbers are good, from the tourism perspective, India has not really capitalised on the potential we have,” Billa said. He added, “India is today one of the largest inbound markets. Judging by the potential of what we have, we are not doing enough and there is probably for much more headroom for us to capture.”

Commenting on what India can do to boost its tourism, Billa emphasised that the key will be knocking down barriers and making travel easier. “To increase India’s potential for growth, we really need to see how we need to ramp up on aviation connectivity and ease the visa process to attract more foreign footfall. We also need to work on the cost of reaching India, as the cost is a barrier. There is a lot of work to be done to promote India as a top tourism destination,” he added.

Earlier, reacting to the travel industry’s demand for an active tourism taskforce, Billa had said that there was a need for multiple taskforces to change the tourism landscape in India. “Taskforce is very important. We can have one taskforce which looks at the picture on a macro side, but we also need to have four or five taskforces which work on sector specific issues. For example, on the infrastructure side, how do we catalyse private investment along with public investment? I think the single important contribution that tourism sector will do to India is create meaningful jobs at all levels. I think there is a clear case for making four or five taskforces, but we will figure out how to structure them,” he had said.