Need to widen infra status for providing lower interest rates to hotels: Suman Billa 

Suman Billa, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, emphasised the need for fundamental reforms to boost India’s tourism sector. “We need to widen the infrastructure status, which will provide lower interest rates and longer repayment tenures for hotel properties. This needs to be addressed through coordination between the Ministry of Finance and the RBI. Currently, this is limited to destinations with populations under 1 million. We need to expand this, as without altering the capital structure, investments from private equity and funds will not flow in.”