Tourism Multiplier as Driver and Potential 10% of India’s GDP
Dr. Srivatsa Krishna, IAS was the keynote speaker at HOPE 2026. In his inaugural address, excerpted here, he spoke passionately about the need for the private sector to up its game, come forward as an equal partner in taking tourism to global heights and as part of the Indian economy, with a share of 10% in GDP, up from a present 5%. Imagine the
scale of jobs generated!
We are putting together a framework for destination management organizations at 50 locations across the country. As for the Honorable Prime Minister’s vision, 50 locations need to be made world-class over the next five, seven years, and we have just begun work on that. I invite every hotel group here to partner with us in that. This is not going to be done by government alone. Government is putting in significant capital into every destination, but I have made sure in my official capacity that we have extensive private sector participation as an equity investor and also as a decision maker in the destination management organization.
And I urge you all to step up to help us with that. Please do not depend on government from budget to budget to budget for the hospitality and hotel industry to thrive. We’ve already done our best. We will continue doing our best. We are working on ease of doing business regulations, which is a very fair ask from industry. As I mentioned, in Goa we are today down to 36 regulations. There are other parts of the country. In Delhi, you have 105. And each one of them we are looking at state-wise and simplifying them, doing away with those which are redundant, which are not required today and trying to make life easier.
At all these 50 iconic destinations, automatically with it, you will get what is called infrastructure status. When you get infrastructure status and want to develop a hotel there, you get concessional bank loans. You get debt at about 6%, 7% instead of the 12%, 13% that you take it on today. So, government is doing its best in order to ensure that tourism gets to 10% of GDP in, say, the next 5 to 10 years. We’re at 5% today. But look at the good news.
With 5% of GDP, we have about 14% of employment of the country comes through this sector. The sector is central to retail, central to culture, central to logistics, central to the whole MICE economy. Government came forward and built Yashobhoomi, built Bharat Mandapam, and they are extraordinary venues for doing conferences. But we need the private sector to step up and also help us in this journey towards Viksit Bharat.
I also want to bring something else to your notice. The Honorable Prime Minister has said this several times. Each tenure of his has had a theme, and the theme for this tenure is Reforms 3.0, both policy reforms as well as process reforms. And I’m working on both. We are succeeding in some states. In some states, we are moving slower. Because as I said, many of these are state-level regulations. But they will happen. Again, go back to the IT industry. Think of where the IT industry was in ‘68. Think of where it is today. $300 billion of exports.
In 2024, if I’m not wrong, India’s software exports exceeded the oil exports of Saudi Arabia, exceeded the food and agricultural exports of Brazil, exceeded the specialized pharma exports of Switzerland, exceeded the transport exports of UK, and exceeded the auto exports of America. And there’s no reason why the miracle which has happened in the IT and technology sector cannot happen in the tourism sector.
I’d like to mention one more thing. We have reached out from our side to the top two, three hospitality schools. I know many of you here are from the IHMs and we are very proud of that. When we write to small hospitality schools around the world, we mention all of you by name. I request every hotel here, hotel industry, to come forward and help us upgrade the IHMs. We’ve already reached out to some schools, including Cornell, and hope we can bring them in as a partner. I know several of you have partnerships with individual IHMs, but I want you to please step up the game. Please come forward and
help us improve the pedagogy, help us improve the curriculum, and last but not the least, help us improve the starting salaries for the graduates. I know hotels are hesitant to pay more. I just came back after a surprise inspection of IHM Goa, where I was shocked to find the salaries which are being paid. And I would urge you to please step up and pay these youngsters more. Help us train them better.
I realize our curriculum may be out of date, but we want your help. Because if we design a curriculum, government is not in this business. If we design a curriculum, you may suddenly find it’s outdated. It is not what you want. We want industry to come forward and tell us what is it that you want. Please invest in the hospitality sector.
We need two hands to clap. We are coming forward with EODB. We have already moved ahead in some of the states, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat. If you face any problems here, please come directly to me. All of you approach me through your associations, please come to us. And we are trying to make these rules and regulations as simple as possible. There are some which need to be there, which cannot be done away with. For example, you know the STAR classification system which is done by my ministry. I know there are issues in it. I know the portal doesn’t work well. We are re-looking at it completely and in another six months hopefully you will have a better portal. But at the same time when I say we will give you this I also want to take something from you and I mentioned what I need.
I need your help to access global markets. I need your help for setting up hotels in these 50 destinations in partnership with governments wherever you can or even by yourself. Need your help in upgrading IHMs, please come forward and help us. Tourism is a shared responsibility. It is not the government responsibility. I am a bird of passage.
An IAS officer is in a job anywhere from one to three years. At the next HOPE conference or maybe the conference after, I won’t be here. There’ll be another tourism secretary. But all of you will be here, and I want you to shoulder the responsibility of taking this forward because this is a permanent treasure and you are the trustees of that. I am a fleeting trustee. You are permanent trustees.
And I request you to please help the government in reaching the Honorable Prime Minister and the tourism minister’s vision of a Viksit Bharat where travel, tourism, and hospitality are centerpieces of this.
When I talked about the hotel five-star classification system, as I said, we will make it simpler. At the same time, there will be some light-touch regulation. We cannot have a system where there is no regulation, where you’re wanting to get these as voluntary. There will be some kind of regulation also. And I’m being absolutely upfront about it. If you want us to help you be your partner, take the leadership role, we will. And that’s a promise. But you have to come forward as an equal partner. We cannot do this alone.
And if you see the Honorable Prime Minister’s speeches, everywhere he’s talking of taking forward each sector in partnership with the private sector. I concede you know more of these ground realities than we do. But unless this, you know, the cake has to grow, we are not fighting for slices of the cake. The cake itself has to grow larger. And for that cake to grow larger, I need each of you to step up and take a more proactive role than what you have been doing till now. I’d like to stop here. I’m available. Anyone wants to meet up?
I had some good meetings with some global CEOs this morning. Thank you very much for giving me a patient hearing. I look forward to your help in making tourism the forefront and leading contributor for a Viksit Bharat.
