Create an actionable pathway
Tourism across India holds immense potential. Since Jammu and Kashmir is a place highly sought by tourists after the situation has shown considerable improvement post 2019, we need robust and fair policies to attract more and more tourists and travellers to the place.
In this regard the latest NITI Aayog–Ministry of Tourism report delivers a sobering but necessary diagnosis. India’s tourism sector is a giant shackled by inaction and red tape. We have the monuments, mountains, coasts, cuisines and culture to rival any destination on earth, yet we fail to perform to the level expected from us. .
The diagnosis is not lack of demand or assets. It is a self-inflicted wound of ‘regulatory complexity’ and ‘frictions in international accessibility’ that turns a potential boom into a bureaucratic crawl.
The report’s findings are damning in their precision. On the supply side, investors face a maze of duplicative approvals, state-level entry taxes even on vehicles with All India Tourist Permits, and environmental clearances that stall projects for years.
A homestay owner, often the backbone of rural tourism, is capped at six rooms—an arbitrary ceiling that stifles micro-entrepreneurship. On the demand side, the visa regime remains clunky compared to Thailand, UAE, or Turkey.
E-visas helped, but they haven’t delivered the ‘accessibility, scale, and user experience’ that repeat, high-spending travelers expect. The result is that India attracted 9.5 million foreign tourists in 2023, while tiny Dubai drew 17 million and Thailand crossed 28 million.
What makes the report valuable is that it avoids grand slogans and offers surgical fixes. Extending All India Tourist Permit validity from 90 days to one year removes a pointless friction for inter-state operators.
Scrapping state-level entry taxes on AITP vehicles ends the petty toll-gate harassment that raises costs and sours first impressions. A dedicated Expert Appraisal Committee for tourism projects could cut years off environmental clearances without diluting safeguards.
Raising the homestay cap to nine rooms acknowledges a reality: small is beautiful, but too small is unsustainable. These are not billion-dollar reforms. They are common-sense plumbing.
The deeper point, however, is philosophical. For decades we treated tourism as a cultural showcase rather than a core economic engine. The report reframes it correctly: tourism is a major driver of growth, employment, foreign exchange, and regional development.
It is labour-intensive, geographically dispersed, and forex-earning—exactly what a trade-deficit economy needs. One foreign tourist supports an estimated 7-9 jobs across transport, hotels, handicrafts, and guides. One streamlined visa policy can do more for Kashmir’s houseboats or Odisha’s beaches than a dozen subsidy schemes.
Tourism is a concurrent subject, but it suffers from fragmented governance. The Centre must persuade states to adopt a single-window clearance model with deemed approvals and standard timelines. The GST Council template shows cooperative federalism can work when the prize is large enough.
India needs a five-year multiple-entry tourist visa for G20 and ASEAN nationals, visa-on-arrival for more countries, and a 48-hour processing guarantee. The stakes are higher than hotel occupancy rates.
As the report notes, India stands at a critical inflection point. Global travel is rebounding post-pandemic, and travellers are diversifying beyond overcrowded Europe. If we don’t fix the basics now, we will cede the next decade to countries that are reforming aggressively.
Tourism is perhaps the only sector where India’s competitive advantage is civilizational, not constructed. We don’t need to build it; we need to stop blocking it. The NITI Aayog report provides a clear, actionable pathway.
