MC EXPLAINER Why IndiGo turbulence may add to India's inbound tourism woes

What's affecting inbound tourism?

Some of the factors that affected India's inbound tourism include the terror attack in Pahalgam earlier this year, the war with Pakistan and other geopolitical uncertainties like the Middle East tensions.

Also, the Delhi blast in November led to India's major source markets like the US and UK issuing travel advisories.

Adding to the strain, an extended monsoon season triggered floods and landslides, dampening any hope of a tourism rebound during the July–September quarter.

Signs of recovery

Yet, there were some hopes of recovery. Experts like Ravi Gosain, president, Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) pointed to many member operators seeing around 15 percent higher arrivals than last year, especially from North America, Europe, West Asia and Southeast Asia.

Another contributing factor is the restart of direct air connectivity between India and China which is driving a rise in two-way travel demand.

In March this year, Puneet Chhatwal, managing director and chief executive officer of Indian Hotels Company, during the firm's 2024-2025 results call had said that many international travellers continue coming to India after G20. He had noted that more people are coming to India from foreign companies like Siemens, Bosch, or Bayer Group.

Chhatwal had also pointed to the growing Global Capability Centres (GCCs) in India and the rising contribution of the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions (MICE) segment.

Still many gaps to fill

While it is expected that foreign tourist numbers could come close to the 2019 peak of 10.9 million, there are many factors that will come into play. One is perception. Crisis like that of IndiGo influence outdated perceptions about safety, hygiene, and infrastructure that are overshadowing India's diverse offerings, making it challenging to attract foreign tourists.

Travel technology company ixigo's head in an interview to Moneycontrol earlier this year had said that India needs to up the destination experience significantly, stressing that the nation needs to make its holiday destinations more accessible at the last mile.

“You might have a flight now reaching an airport, but what happens after that? How easy is it to navigate around that city? A classic example is Goa. Everybody goes there for the beach experience but with the amount of footfalls it has, it has the potential to also become a destination for many other attractions that can be developed there,” said ixigo's co-founder Aloke Bajpai.

He also noted that there is a need of a lot of introspection by the private sector as well as the government as to what can be done to at least be at par with several of the South-East Asian counterparts in terms of the number of inbound travellers and the amount of foreign exchange earnings that can come with that.

India lags behind Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Dubai that recorded 35.5 million, 25 million, 18.7 million, 17.6 million, 13.9 million international visitors in 2024 respectively.

These countries trail India with their marketing might.

India, on the other hand, is dealing with lack of a sufficient overseas marketing budget, preventing it from maintaining an attractive presence in major international travel fairs.

The country's overseas promotion and publicity budget was dropped to Rs 3 crore in FY26 from Rs 33 crore in FY25.