Less than ‘Incredible'

The government took some key policy initiatives but didn’t back it with budgets. And India was not a big draw for foreign tourists

- Kaushik Deka

Union minister of state for tourism (independent charge) K.J. Alphons has an impressive number for critics of the Modi government who go on about ‘jobless growth’—the sector created 13 million jobs in the past four years, he says. A 2017 report of the World Travel and Tourism Council says tourism contributed over 9 per cent to India’s GDP and provided 8 per cent of the country’s employment. The sector is also the third largest foreign exchange earner for India. And the minister reminds us that “the country climbed from rank #7 in 2017 to #3 in 2018 in the World Travel and Tourism Council’s power and performance index”. The irony here is that despite the jump in rankings, less than five per cent of foreign tourists to the Asia-Pacific region visit India.