NITI Aayog Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Amitabh Kant said it was “shameful” that India has not been able to attract U.S. tourists to the country.
“There is a huge untapped potential ….and a minuscule share of American tourists come here,” Mr. Kant said at an event organised by Indo-American Chamber of Commerce. “Out of 68 million American outbound tourists, just 1.1 million people come to India. It is a shame on our ability to penetrate the American market.”
“The tourism industry should take this as a challenge and deliver results by increasing American tourists to at least five million in the next three years,” he said.
He said India should not focus on mass tourism as it ‘destroys’ attractive destinations, but should make efforts to open up skies for airlines to come freely into the country. “India’s focus must be on up-market, high-value tourism.”
Mr. Kant spelt out the 6 C’s ‘essential for tourism to flourish in India’ — civil aviation policy, civil governance, communication strategy, consistency of policy, capacity building and community participation.
“For India to grow in travel and tourism, you need a very open sky policy. India’s growth in tourism was largely impacted due to a lack of aggressive civil aviation policy,” he said.
