Highlighting that an India Tourism Stack can establish India as the world’s most seamless and digitally advanced travel destination, Suman Billa, Additional Secretary, MOT, said, “It is time for policymakers, industry leaders, and digital innovators to come together and build the India Tourism Stack — a public good that can catalyse inclusive economic growth and elevate India’s global tourism stature.”
Read More »Double GDP share of tourism to 10% in 10 years, create 25m jobs in five years: Billa
Suman Billa, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, said, “One of the targets we could perhaps place for ourselves is how to double tourism’s GDP contribution from 5% to 10% in the next ten years and probably add 25 million jobs in the next five years.” He emphasised the need for strategic efforts to achieve this growth.
Read More »‘Well-thought-out policy framework is essential to address existing challenges of tourism industry,’ says Suman Billa
Suman Billa, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, GoI believes that a well-thought-out policy framework is essential to address existing challenges in the tourism sector. “We should undertake carrying capacity studies to assess factors such as vehicular traffic, room availability, waste management, disaster resilience, etc.,” he added.
Read More »Tourism contributes 5.6% to India’s GDP, need to double it in next 10 years by investing aggressively: Suman Billa
Suggesting that India has to create an enabling environment for the market forces to unleash with aggression in terms of investments in the sector to realise the sector’s true potential, Suman Billa, Additional Secretary, MOT, said, “Tourism currently contributes 5.6% to the country’s GDP which is quite low. The task is to double it in the next 10 years by encouraging market forces to invest aggressively in the sector.”
Read More »Billa unveils FHRAI’s Centre of Excellence, aiming to map GST, excise duty, & other credible data on hospitality
Suman Billa, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, inaugurated FHRAI’s Centre of Excellence in New Delhi. Billa, said, “It will create a comprehensive data ecosystem and play a vital role in generating analytical insights that can guide government policy and help us better support the industry.”
Read More »We need to make around 4-5 taskforces to work on sector-specific issues, says Suman Billa, Additional Secretary, MOT
Suman Billa, Additional Secretary, MOT, has said that India could have one taskforce that looks at the ‘macro side’ picture, but there is also a need to have four or five taskforces that work on sector-specific issues. “I think there is a clear case for making four or five taskforces, but we will figure out how to structure them,” he said.
Read More »‘TCS is a fair issue raised by outbound sector, we will take it up with Ministry of Finance’: Suman Billa
Suman Billa, Additional Secretary, Tourism, has said that TCS is a fair point raised by outbound sector, because people who are doing business in India are getting disincentivised and who travel abroad can make the payment and obviate the entire necessity of paying the tax. “We will be taking it up with the Ministry of Finance,” he added.
Read More »Need to utilise our world-class infrastructure by bringing more conferences to India and boost MICE: Suman Billa
Speaking about MICE, Suman Billa, Additional Secretary, Tourism, said, “It is a big opportunity and there is a need to bring the biggest conferences of the world here, to show the size of India’s offerings. With world-class conferencing infrastructure like Bharat Mandapam, we need to look at how we can utilise those to get more conferences in India.”
Read More »Keeping Viksit Bharat 2047 in mind, we need business plan-like strategy for tourism for next 5 years: Suman Billa
Suman Billa, Additional Secretary, Tourism, has said, “We need to think of Viksit Bharat 2047 and plan for the next five years in how to create a stronger tourism sector. Broadly we need to look at having a business plan sort of a strategy—where are we now? Where should we be in 2047? and What is the target that we set for ourselves over the next five years in terms of investment, job creation, promotion & publicity?”
Read More »Suman Billa returns to MOT as Additional Secretary
Suman Billa returns to Ministry of Tourism as Additional Secretary in place of Rakesh Verma, who has been appointed as Additional Secretary, Department of Water Resources, River Development u& Ganga Rejuvenation. Billa was the Joint Secretary, Tourism, from 2014 to 2019, after which he joined UNWTO as Director, Technical Cooperation and Silk Road. After this, he was appointed as Principal Secretary, Industries and NORKA, Government of Kerala until the recent move.
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