The Indian tourism and hospitalitysector were adversely aff�ected by theCOVID-19 pandemic and saw sub-stantial job loss. How do we pull thissector out of the COVID-19 trap?

The Government of India recentlyannounced fi�nancial support formore than 11,000 registered touristguides/travel and tourism stakehol-ders. It also said once internationaltravel resumes, the fi�rst fi�ve lakh tou-rists will be issued visas free ofcharge. In the pre-pandemic periodtoo, many initiatives were adopted topromote the tourism sector, such asproviding e-visas under various cate-gories for people from particularcountries, Global Media Campaigns,the Heritage Trail and the ParyatanParv celebration.

These measures are welcome. Ho-wever, we need other long-term mea-sures too, to tap the potential of thissector. What we need is disruptive in-novation strategy which has the po-tential to create employment oppor-tunities and increase revenuethrough private sector growth.

The Startup India initiative hasboosted entrepreneurship. However,the travel and tourism startups needa bigger push. Innovative startupsshould be encouraged. Support fromthe government for ideation and ac-cess to fi�nance are required.

A sector with potentialAs per the estimates of the erstwhilePlanning Commission, an investmentof ₹�1 million generates 78 jobs in thetourism sector. In the manufacturingsector, it results in just 18 jobs and inthe agriculture sector, 45. The tou-rism sector, unlike many other sec-tors, can grow with smaller capital in-vestments and that too without anyindustrial gestation period.

There is need to train the work-force in India, so that workers can de-velop the skills to perform jobs in thetravel and tourism sector. Thegrowth in this sector has multipliereff�ects on income generation as it isemployment-intensive with less capi-tal investment. The India Skill Re-port, 2019, estimates the Indianworkforce to increase to about 600million by 2022 from the current 473million in view of the fourth indus-

trial revolution. The tourism sectorwill have a major role to play in pro-viding employment opportunities.

India improved its competitive-ness in travel and tourism, from oc-cupying the 65th position in 2013 andthen the 40th position in 2017 andthen the 34th position in 2019, as perthe Travel and Tourism Competitive-ness Report of 2019. But internation-al arrivals have remained compara-tively low, at around 9 to 10 million.Thus, there is a need to highlight thesignifi�cance of public-private part-nership to improve infrastructureand tackle the problem of end con-nectivity, which negatively aff�ect theexperiences of international travell-ers. The travel and tourism industryin India is also fragmented, hinderingthe ability of the sector to achieve itspotential. This area needs to benudged to embrace the digital revolu-tion, so as to promote public-privateinitiatives, medium and small andsized enterprises’ growth while en-suring that India follows best practic-es from across the world.

Use of blockchain technologyBlockchain is a system of recordinginformation in a way that makes itdiffi�cult or impossible to change,hack, or cheat the system. A block-chain is essentially a digital ledger oftransactions that is duplicated anddistributed across the entire networkof computer systems on the block-chain. There are examples world-wide on blockchain-based money so-lutions to kick-start local tourismindustries, for instance. Blockchainenables the tracking of items throughcomplex supply chains. Indian start-ups could also explore strategiesalong these lines. Blockchain ledgercoupled with IOT devices for health-care could have a positive impact onmedical tourism.

There are challenges too with theadvent of disruptive technologies.The government and regulators needto collaborate and design innovativemechanisms to address the challeng-es of these technologies, for smoothgrowth of the sector.

Surjith Karthikeyan is an Indian EconomicService (2010) offi�cer , serving as DeputySecretary to the Ministry of Finance. Viewsare personal

Boost tourism through disruptionIndia needs a comprehensive disruptive strategy totap the potential of the tourism and hospitality sector

Surjith Karthikeyan