Arvind Singh, Secretary, Tourism, said that the MOT is very happy with the increased focus and attention on tourism. “All the stakeholders—central government, state government and private sector, will have to work together to take the mission that the PM has for the sector, to take it forward.”

Ajay Singh, CMD, SpiceJet, has said, “The budget is growth oriented and yet prudent and responsible. Coming as it does in a year when India has assumed the presidency of the G20, it is an object lesson in how an economy should be managed in a crisis.”

According to the document shared by the Finance Ministry, the budget outlay for overseas promotion and publicity, including MDA, ₹167crores , which is less than 50% of the outlay announced in FY2022-23 (₹341cr). However, the revised outlay was eventually was ₹60cr for both overseas and domestic promotions.

Speaking at the closing ceremony of Bharat Parv in New Delhi, Union Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy, said “India has been able to succesfully counteract the pandemic impact as over 2-crore tourists visited Jammu and Kashmir, and many people are also visiting North East states of India.”

In the Union Budget 2023, it was announced that the government has increased Tax Collection at Source (TCS) for overseas packages from 5%to 20%. Riaz Munshi, President, OTOAI, says that instead of reducing the TCS, it has been increased and it will hamper the business. Rajeev Sabharwal  (CA), Chief Executive, Gaurav Travels, says outbound industry should oppose this move.

Arvind Singh, Secretary, Tourism, has said that the MOT has a clear plan and accountability is in place to ensure aggressive promotion of Incredible India in key source/emerging markets. “Necessary support to Indian tour operators will be channelized by the NTB for effective market penetration and promotion,” he added.

While the industry is happy of tourism being mentioned in Union Budget 2023-24, tour operators in Himachal Pradesh have demanded to be brought uder a special package to boost tourism. Also, they asked for Bharat Bhraman schemes to be extended in the state in addition to ow-interest rates on loans for tourism business.

Arvind Singh, Secretary, Tourism, has said that at international travel fairs, every country has significant representation of hotels and airlines at their stalls. “However, India only has tour operators and travel agents. There is hardly any presence of hotels and airlines. Going ahead, we need to ramp that up because we have world class airlines and hotels,” he said.

Jyotiraditya Scindia, Minister of Civil Aviation, has said that tourism and civil aviation are two sides of the same coin. “These two sectors are conjoined twins in terms of seeing development of each other’s sector,” he claimed.

G Kishan Reddy, Minister of Tourism and Culture has said that the government of India has always felt that the promotion of India’s tourism will only be effective when different Ministries at the Union level and States work in cohesion by combining their domain expertise.