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Senthil Nathan S, Director, EP (Services), Ministry of Commerce, Government of India, shared that the foreign trade policy will be released by the government by the end of this month and also emphasised on the importance of tourism and hospitality as service exports.
TT Bureau
Speaking at the Hospitality and Tourism Conclave, organised by the Services and Export Promotion Council (SEPC), Senthil Nathan S, Director, EP (Services), Ministry of Commerce, Government of India, agreed that the tourism industry has come out of a very challenging couple of years.
“All of us have heard for time immemorial that we are going to expand as an economy. We are already fifth in the world in terms of exports itself and we have set ambitious targets of $1 trillion each in merchandise and services by end of this decade or earlier than that. However, when we talk of services, which I often see as often neglected cousin to merchandise exports, contributes significantly around two-third of our economy and other such parameters. We need to focus more on that and even the Commerce Secretary was underlining this, at the brainstorming session in last week of August,” he said. He added, “Within services exports too, when we talk of services, invariably the mind goes to IT services as that has been seen as the mainstay and focus strength area of Indian exports. To that extent, other services have not been given as much attention as they should have been. Tourism and hospitality contribute almost $29 billion. It has always been an important strength area, if not the most strong area within services of this country, not just in the recent years or decades, but from ancient India when we were living by the ethos of Atithi Devo Bhava and we had visitors coming from across the world, either from the Far East or from the Middle East or even further up. This means that tourism and hospitality industry is one of our core strength areas and going forward I would not be surprised if set ourselves a target to even outmarch the exports of IT – ITR services.”
He also shared that the Commerce Secretary was also saying that today the profile of exports is merchandise contributing almost 60 per cent of our exports or more than that and services contributing to almost 37-40 per cent. “However, going forward, within the next decade by mid-2030s or so, services, given their momentum of growth and their inherent potential, are going to outstrip the exports of merchandise. It would also outlast in terms of their growth rate, we are seeing so far. Given that kind of a vision, which supported by data where we are headed to, we are going to see the services exports doing exceedingly well and within that sectors like tourism and hospitality are going to do so well because of their potential.”
Given the diversity of India, he said, “I don’t see why we should not be able to attract tourists from within the country, to destinations across the country as well as foreign tourists across the entire year because right from adventure sports, flora-fauna, every kind of topography, or any interest that tourists might have, India has many things to offer.”
Nathan S claimed that we should be able to attract tourists from across the world throughout the year. “I am sure, the MOT, along with the Department of Commerce and multiple other stakeholder industries and the stakeholder ministries, is working on those plans. I am aware of multiple initiatives that are already underway to pave the path to ensure that the tourism industry grows in the way that is not just ambitious, it can outstrip every other sector that contributes to service exports. Some of these are already mentioned, either it is the MICE or medical value tourism or education. I am sure that there are also steps that have been taken and will be taken shortly in terms of how we brand ourselves,” he insisted.
