Tourism hits Rs 22 lakh crore runway — India's travel boom ready for takeoff
Tired of too many ads?
Remove Ads
Tired of too many ads?
Remove Ads
Popular in Services
1.
India's international visitor spend soars to record highs: WTTC
The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) is forecasting a 'record-breaking' year for India's travel and tourism sector this year, with its economic contribution set to reach over '22 lakh crore in 2025, whilst employment in the sector is expected to reach more than 48 million.International visitor spending is expected to reach '3.2 lakh crore, whilst spending from domestic travellers is set to hit '16 lakh crore.WTTC stated that by 2035, travel and tourism's contribution to the economy is forecast to almost double, at just under '42 lakh crore, with the sector employing almost 64 million people.Data released on Tuesday from WTTC showed that international visitor spends in India reached a record '3.1 lakh crore in 2024, 9% above the previous peak of 2019.According to WTTC's latest Economic Impact Research (EIR), while domestic travel has remained a 'vital force', with spending soaring to '15.5 lakh crore, (22% above 2019 levels), the revival of international tourism is now propelling the sector into a 'bold' new era of growth.Travel and tourism contributed almost '21 lakh crore to the Indian economy last year, 20% more than 2019 levels.The sector also supported an all-time high of almost 46.5 million jobs, equivalent to 9.1% of total employment across India.The country also welcomed 20 million international visitors in 2024, 2.3 million more than 2019.But, while overall international visitor numbers went up considerably last year, as per WTTC research, the numbers and the growth, compared to pre pandemic levels, seem to have been driven considerably by visits by non-resident Indians. As per data released by the ministry of tourism, India received more than 9.65 million foreign tourists in calendar year 2024, rising 1.4% from 9.52 million in 2023 but declining 11.6% from 10.93 million in 2019.WTTC said it calls for continued investment and targeted policy support, and would urge the government to reconsider its recent decision to reduce funding for overseas tourism promotion."India's travel & tourism sector is experiencing unprecedented growth, with international visitor numbers now at record highs after a period of strong domestic reliance. We strongly support the government's plans to simplify the e-visa process. Making it easier to visit India is one of the fastest ways to unlock further international arrivals and spending," said Julia Simpson, president and CEO, WTTC. "While visa on arrival and e-visa systems are in place, reciprocal policies and long delays for key markets like the US, where appointments are reportedly unavailable until 2026 continue to hinder tourists," she added.The global tourism body's research also reveals India's business travel is experiencing record growth, with combined domestic and international spending hitting '1.1 lakh crore last year, surpassing the 2019 peak by 2.6%.The council said India is 'well-placed' to become one of the world's most dynamic tourism economies, with its dynamic mix of heritage, natural beauty, and modern innovation, and that it calls on the government to match the sector's resilience and ambition with 'clear', 'consistent' policy support.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hindustan Times
26 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
India-US trade talks need political push for final leg
The fine print of a preliminary trade deal between India and the US has mostly been worked out by negotiators from both sides but the ball is now in the court of the political leadership to break a stalemate, people aware of the parleys told HT, disclosing two of the topmost sticking points that remain. Trade experts said an interim trade deal between India and the US is possible by July 9, provided both respect practical and political sensitivities of each other. (AFP File) According to these people, these issues are: an unequivocal assurance that New Delhi seeks from Washington that all punitive levies will be repealed, and a freer access to India's politically sensitive agriculture sector that the American side has sought. 'The two-day deliberation that started in Washington on Thursday will likely stretch over to next week,' one of these people, who has direct knowledge of the talks, told HT. Both sides are in a sprint to announce a breakthrough, which will be a preliminary deal covering some portion of the trade between two nations, with a larger bilateral trade deal expected to be signed by October. Once the deal is done, India wants America to withdraw all existing and potential retaliatory tariffs, including the 26% reciprocal tariff — this comprises a 10% baseline tariff imposed from April 5 and an additional 16% country-specific levy set to trigger from July 9. India also wants the US to revoke all safeguard duties disputed at the World Trade Organisation—50% on Indian steel and aluminium and 25% on automobiles and auto parts—and to reciprocate New Delhi's move by proportionately slashing its most favoured nation tariffs. 'Washington has not yet given any unequivocal commitment on these matters, which are crucial for Indian interests,' another person said. American negotiators have been suggesting India replicate the US-UK Economic Prosperity Deal model, where Britain accepted continued 10% baseline tariffs on most goods while securing relief from additional sectoral tariffs. However, Indian negotiators have rejected this approach. The other sticking point is the US insistence on India opening its agriculture and farming sector. While the American side is open to tariff rate quotas (TRQ) — a mechanism under which concessional duty or duty-free access of any specified item applies to a limited quantity — their insistence on some sensitive sectors is a challenge. 'The problem lies in wanting India to also open its sensitive sectors. Dairy imports are restricted for two reasons. First, India's dairy farming is at a subsistence level with one or two cows or buffaloes. The livelihoods of millions of farmers are at stake as they could not compete with America's commercial-scale dairy farms. Secondly, the US cattle feed includes non-vegetarian products, something against religious sentiments of Indian consumers,' a third person said. Similarly, India is unable to accept the US demand to allow unrestricted access to American agricultural items such as corn and soybean because Indian law does not permit genetically modified crops. 'America is unwilling to accept an institutional mechanism which would certify that its India-bound agriculture produce are not genetically modified, saying there is a practical problem in segregating GM and non-GM products,' this person said. This person added that solving such issues now require a political directive from the highest levels of the government. 'While majority of issues have been resolved with near consensus, including on removing tariff and non-tariff barriers on most of the items of interest for both countries, certain sensitive matters require political directives from the two leaders. An interim India-US trade deal, mainly involving goods, is possible to conclude before July 9, depending on political resolution of the stalemate,' the second person said. The Indian negotiating team could extend its stay in Washington next week and the two parties would discuss contentious issues, depending on any political directive, according to the first person. The Indian negotiating team led by chief negotiator and special secretary-commerce Rajesh Agrawal was still in Washington on Saturday, indicating that talks may extend into next week. Trade experts said an interim trade deal between India and the US is possible by July 9, provided both respect practical and political sensitivities of each other. Global Trade Research Initiative founder Ajay Srivastava outlined a likely scenario: 'The more likely outcome is a limited trade pact—styled after the US-UK mini trade deal announced on May 8. Under such a deal, India is expected to cut MFN tariffs on a wide range of industrial goods, including automobiles, a persistent demand from Washington. In agriculture, India may offer limited market access through tariff reductions and TRQs on select US products such as ethanol, almonds, walnuts, apples, raisins, avocados, olive oil, spirits, and wine.' 'However, India is unlikely to budge on sensitive sectors. No tariff cuts are expected for dairy products or key food grains like rice and wheat, where farm livelihoods are at stake. These categories are politically and economically sensitive, affecting over 700 million people in India's rural economy,' he added. Srivastava warned that 'the talks may collapse' if the US continues to insist on opening India's core agriculture sectors or allowing entry of GM products. The prudent move for Washington would be to respect Indian sensitivities and forge a deal for stronger strategic cooperation in future, he said, noting that 'agricultural goods account for less than 5% of US exports to India.' Another expert working in a multinational consulting firm said: 'Now it is the time for America to act as India has already given several concessions, making its intent clear for stronger and everlasting economic cooperation with the US.' After a week where tariffs took a back seat to the US strike on Iran's nuclear facilities and the massive tax and spending bill in the US Congress, the Trump administration's trade negotiations have picked up. News agency Reuters reported Washington had sent a new proposal to the EU on Thursday and held talks with Japan on Friday. Both India and Japan are in advanced negotiations.
Indian Express
35 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Behind Mazagon Dock's Lanka deal: Eye on China, Colombo bailout plea
A strategic move to contain China's expanding footprint in the region, a Sri Lankan SOS for bailout, and a failing Japanese firm — these were among the factors that led to the Indian government-run Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited's decision to acquire a controlling stake in Sri Lanka's Colombo Dockyard PLC under a US$ 52.96 million deal, officials have told The Indian Express. Announcing its decision on Friday, Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) had said: 'Located in the Port of Colombo, Colombo Dockyard PLC (CDPLC) gives MDL a strategic foothold in the Indian Ocean Region — a key maritime corridor.' CDPLC, listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange, is the flagship of Sri Lanka's maritime industry and serves a wide spectrum of commercial and governmental clients across Asia, Middle East and Africa. Officials from both the Sri Lankan and Indian governments worked overtime to conclude this strategic deal on Sri Lanka's largest shipyard, said sources. According to officials, CDPLC has been in dire straits for some time. 'Since it is 51% owned by Onomichi Dockyard Company Ltd, they initially sought relief from the Government of Japan, and thereafter from the Government of Sri Lanka. However, neither government could provide any financial relief to them,' an official said. At the end of November 2024, Onomichi Dockyard exited from CDPLC. At this point, officials said, the Sri Lankan government requested the Indian government to encourage Indian investors to look at Colombo Dockyard. 'A default by CDPLC would be serious for the Sri Lankan government as, out of the remaining 49% stake, around 16% is owned by their Employees' Provident Fund. Sri Lanka's insurance fund owns around 9%, Sri Lanka Ports Authority 5% and so on. A default would also have brought great financial distress and uncertainty for the workers employed in Colombo Dockyard,' the official said. 'A few companies, with strong credentials, expressed an interest in CDPLC. As per the due process followed for a listed company, MDL was shortlisted in view of its prowess in shipbuilding as well as its financial strength. Both these aspects are key for the turnover of Colombo Dockyard,' the official said. MDL's net worth, represented by its market capitalisation, is approximately $15.12 billion as of June 25, 2025. The company is almost debt-free. It has reported a turnover of approximately $1.13 billion, according to officials. MDL's decision is expected to significantly change the shipbuilding and ship repair landscape in the region. With CDPLC its first international venture, it is seen as a major milestone in the company's transformation from a purely domestic shipbuilder into a regional maritime player with global aspirations. 'It demonstrates the appetite by Indian industry, including PSUs, to acquire strategic assets overseas and to build investment-led partnerships,' the official said. On the other hand, MDL's controlling stake will serve as a force multiplier for CDPLC, said officials. MDL will bring an order pipeline for CDPLC from both domestic and international market for repairs, refits and new builds, they said. The move is expected to boost the existing revenue stream from the Indian sub-continent's ship repairs. A number of orders for which potential clients are approaching MDL can be diverted to CDPLC, the official said. On sharing of expertise, the official said both the shipyards possess enormous expertise garnered over the past decades. 'This strength can be leveraged for mutual benefit and can result in a win-win scenario,' the official said. The resources available at both the yards can be shared for mutual benefit. 'For instance, the detailed design capabilities possessed by both the yards can be leveraged for projects at MDL as well as at CDPLC,' the official said. CDPLC, which is currently under financial distress, can benefit from MDL's strong financial capabilities, thereby expediting the turnaround process. CDPLC will now be in a position to secure contracts which it missed earlier due to poor financial health, the official said. In a regulatory filing, the Mumbai-headquartered shipbuilder said the proposed acquisition would enable the company to strengthen its position in the ship repair and shipbuilding industry by unlocking operational synergies, enhancing research development capacities and expanding market reach. 'It supports the company's long-term growth vision in the shipbuilding and ship repair industry,' it said. The move comes amid concerns in New Delhi over Beijing's persistent attempts to expand its strategic influence in the island nation. China Merchants Port Holdings holds an 85% stake in Hambantota International Port Group (HIPG) and secured a 99-year lease on the Hambantota International Port (HIP) in Sri Lanka in 2017. In July 2024, CDPLC and HIPG signed an agreement to set up a full-fledged workshop at HIP. Shubhajit Roy, Diplomatic Editor at The Indian Express, has been a journalist for more than 25 years now. Roy joined The Indian Express in October 2003 and has been reporting on foreign affairs for more than 17 years now. Based in Delhi, he has also led the National government and political bureau at The Indian Express in Delhi — a team of reporters who cover the national government and politics for the newspaper. He has got the Ramnath Goenka Journalism award for Excellence in Journalism '2016. He got this award for his coverage of the Holey Bakery attack in Dhaka and its aftermath. He also got the IIMCAA Award for the Journalist of the Year, 2022, (Jury's special mention) for his coverage of the fall of Kabul in August 2021 — he was one of the few Indian journalists in Kabul and the only mainstream newspaper to have covered the Taliban's capture of power in mid-August, 2021. ... Read More
The Hindu
2 hours ago
- The Hindu
Fish, friendship, and a fudge
I once read an old English book on fishing, one of those charmingly archaic volumes filled with both practical advice and poetic digressions, which mentioned a guest house on the banks of the Giri river, about 10 kilometres below Solan towards Rajgarh. The memory of that book stayed with me, tucked away like a forgotten map. Years later, it resurfaced at just the right moment. It was near midnight, and we were descending from Himachal Pradesh, weary from the road and in search of a place to rest. I remembered the book and its quiet recommendation, and so, guided by instinct and half-remembered lines, we found our way to that very guest house on the river, a favourite quarry of British anglers of Mahaseers, an angling challenge. It was just as the author had described: a simple, lovely place nestled beside the Giri, where the river widened into a calm pool. The surroundings were clean and undisturbed, with low hills gently enclosing the valley, as if sheltering it from the rest of the world. A place utterly still, yet brimming with quiet life. Literature, after all, has long borne witness to rivers not just as locations but as moral and symbolic thresholds, from the meditative solitude of Izaak Walton's The Complete Angler to the spiritual journeys across the Ganga in Indian mythology. Rivers are indeed not merely backdrops but undying protagonists. Modest in form, the Giri carries the soul of a river, ancient and awake. It flows down through Himachal's foothills, like a whispered hymn, to join the Yamuna at Ponta Sahib, that old, sacred town of pilgrimage and memory, a site where literature, history, and faith intertwine. And from there, its waters merge with the great Yamuna, which eventually pours into the Ganga, India's most timeless river steeped in reverence and legends. To sit beside the Giri, then, was to be part of that immense journey, a thin stream flowing into the heart of the subcontinent. Blissful days We spent three blissful days upriver from that sacred site, a fleeting spell of unbroken serenity full of sunlight and quiet rapture. We basked by the water, swam in its cold blueish-green clarity, cast our lines for the elusive Mahaseer, and relished long, simple meals under the sky. Every afternoon and evening featured fish, either those we had (miraculously) managed to catch, or, more often, the result of a more pragmatic solution. One morning, as we descended from the guest house to the water's edge, we came upon a local fisherman who had already laid claim to the day's abundance. While we enacted our slow-motion drama of enlightened angling, he skipped straight to success without props or pretence. He had stretched a wide net across a narrow bend in the river, and when the early morning fish swam unsuspectingly into it, he hauled in nearly two dozen hefty, slippery Mahaseers without the ancient meditations of bait and stillness. Beautiful tough creatures, golden monsters in their own right, the 'tigers of the river'. We hadn't caught a thing ourselves. But drawn by the sight, and driven by appetite, we asked if he would part with four of his catch. He agreed readily, seemed pleased in fact, and took half a rupee for the lot. It felt like a small betrayal of the sport, of the quiet ethic to catch a fish, not trap and slaughter it in cold blood. There was something crude, almost violent, in that indiscriminate haul, a kind of rupture in the intimacy between angler and fish. I thought of my days in Cambridge, fishing in the River Cam and how, as the fishing principles dictate, we would unhook the fish and let it go back into the river. Understandably, the ethics of fishing, of sportsmanship, restraint, respect for the life one draws from the water, haunted us gently, never enough to stop us from eating, but always enough to make us think. Hunger won over principle that morning. Unlike hunters returning from a thoroughly undeserved triumph, we shuffled back to the guesthouse, fish flapping, egos inflated, and mischief bubbling under the veneer of modesty. We told the others that we had caught them ourselves, a harmless fiction, and the breakfast that followed was among the finest I remember. Simply boiled potatoes, fresh grilled fish, and that shared sense of satisfaction that only a river morning can give. And so the days passed. Morning swims, afternoon naps, evenings of firelight and laughter. Our modest attempts at fishing continued, more for the pleasure of the ritual than the hope of success. And the fisherman continued his efficient work upstream, which we disapproved of in principle but quietly relied on in practice. The Mahasheer, grilled and spiced, always made its way to our plates. Fishing for Mahaseer is, indeed, less about the catch and more about the journey. Immersed in tranquil landscapes and flowing mountain rivers, the experience offers a deep connection with nature. The excitement of encountering such a powerful fish adds to the thrill, but even without a catch, the adventure, the serenity, and the sheer beauty of the surroundings make it unforgettable. In the end, it was not just the fishing or the setting that made those three days special. It was the feeling of being out of time, of living by the pace of water, sun, and hunger. Of watching a small, unassuming river move with quiet purpose toward the sacred confluence with the Yamuna at Ponta Sahib, and then onward, toward the Ganga, carrying with it the dust of mountains, the breath of forests, and the fragments of stories like ours. Standing on the banks, a thought came to my mind that rivers are not only geographical features, but carriers of civilisation, memory, and language. shelleywalia@
