India’s tourism growth is being constrained not by demand, but by supply-side bottlenecks, particularly at the city level, according to Dr Suman Billa, IAS, Additional Secretary & Director General, Ministry of Tourism.
Speaking during PATA India Tourism PowerHouse 2026 in New Delhi, Dr Billa identified limited room capacity, delayed project clearances and lack of city-specific MICE promotion structures as key challenges holding back India’s ambition to significantly raise tourism’s economic contribution.
He emphasised the urgent need for dedicated city-level MICE promotional bureaus, stating that large-scale conferences, exhibitions and business events cannot be managed effectively through state-level branding alone.
Dr Billa underlined that tourism’s share in India’s GDP must rise from the current 5.5 percent to 10 percent, but achieving this would require policy-enabled investments, faster approvals and tighter Centre–State–Industry convergence.
He also highlighted that aligning national campaigns with state-level tourism strategies would be critical, adding that “without strengthening core infrastructure and capacity, marketing alone cannot deliver sustainable growth.”
Industry stakeholders present at the session noted that the comments signal a potential policy pivot towards decentralised destination management, particularly for India’s emerging urban and tier-2 conference hubs.
