International arrivals have surpassed pre-pandemic levels, but India must simplify visas, improve connectivity and make travel within the country easier to meet its ambition of 100 million foreign visitors.
India’s tourism industry has regained much of its momentum after the pandemic, but the harder task is turning that rebound into sustained global share. According to the Ministry of Tourism, international tourist arrivals rose to 20.57 million in 2024, above the pre-pandemic figure of 17.91 million in 2019. Even so, the policy debate has shifted from recovery to scale: if India wants tourism to become a $3 trillion economy by 2047 and attract 100 million foreign tourist arrivals, it will need sharper action on visas, connectivity and the ease of moving around the country.
The scale of the sector helps explain why the pressure is rising. The World Travel & Tourism Council said international visitors spent $1.87 trillion globally, while India’s own travel and tourism industry contributed Rs 15.73 lakh crore to gross domestic product in 2023-24, or 5.22% of the economy, according to provisional National Accounts Statistics data cited in the article. Labour estimates published in the same reporting suggested the sector supported tens of millions of direct and indirect jobs, underscoring how tourism acts as a multiplier for aviation, retail, hospitality and local transport.
Yet the International tourist arrival figures only tell part of the story. The World Economic Forum’s Travel & Tourism Development Index 2024 placed India 39th out of 119 economies, with strong marks for natural and cultural resources but weaker performance on enabling conditions such as business environment, tourist services infrastructure and openness to international travellers. That gap matters because India still trails several regional competitors in converting interest into actual visits, even as demand from non-resident Indians has proved especially resilient after the pandemic.
That is why visa policy has become central to the growth argument. The piece cites a NITI Aayog report published in 2026 that calls for a more attractive, faster and simpler system, including a tourist visa on arrival for selected countries, multiple-entry access for up to 90 days and a broader rationalisation of visa categories. The World Travel and Tourism Council has made a similar case, saying streamlined entry procedures and better connectivity could lift spending further, with its 2026 outlook projecting visitor spending in India could reach Rs 3.3 trillion if access and promotion improve. Government data presented in the Lok Sabha also indicated that foreign tourist arrivals in 2025 were more volatile month to month than in 2024, with officials pointing to visa rules, safety, marketing, foreign policy and affordability as influencing factors.
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