India’s inbound travel players have expressed deep disappointment over the drastic reduction in the government’s budget for overseas destination promotion and publicity.
The Union Budget for 2025-2026 allocated approximately US$346,800 for international tourism promotion and marketing, a sharp decline from around US$3,814,170 in financial year 2024-2025, and around US$5,900,000 in financial year 2023-2024.
Industry experts warn that the steep cuts will severely impact India’s global tourism visibility, making it difficult for the country to compete with other Asian destinations.
Ravi Gosain, managing director, Erco Travels, told TTG Asia: “We have been advocating with the Ministry of Tourism that India needs visibility worldwide. If you want to sell India as a tourism product, you need to promote it in the international market.
“However, this budget offers hardly any support for overseas promotion. We were working hard to revive inbound tourism post-pandemic, but without adequate funds, it will be a struggle to compete globally.”
The scale of the budget reduction becomes more apparent when compared to previous allocations. In the Union Budget 2019-2020, approximately US$43,500,000 was allotted for overseas promotion and publicity, making the current allocation a staggering 99 per cent decline over six years.
A New Delhi-based hotelier, who wished to remain anonymous, shared concerns over the government’s shift in focus.
“Instead of investing in international marketing, we are now channelling our resources towards the domestic leisure, wedding and MICE segments,” he stated.
The Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) has written to the prime minister, the Ministry of Tourism, and the Ministry of Finance, urging the government to allocate substantial funds for international promotion. The association has also demanded the reinstatement of the Marketing Development Assistance (MDA) scheme, which previously provided financial aid to tour operators for participation in overseas travel trade exhibitions.
“Even the foreign tour operators who do group business to India are feeling the pinch, stating that they are not getting enquiries from the general public in their markets. The government needs to take corrective measures immediately to help the inbound tourism sector,” urged Rajiv Mehra, president, IATO.
