India must undertake visa reforms, invest more in tourism: WTTC president

New Delhi: India needs to undertake visa reforms, improve air and land connectivity, and invest more in tourism promotion to unlock its vast tourism potential and attract a larger number of foreign visitors, World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) President and CEO Gloria Guevara said on Thursday.

Addressing a media roundtable here, she said India's visa free access extends to only three countries, compared to China that offers visa free access to 70 nations and Thailand to 90 countries.

Highlighting the job creation potential of the travel and tourism sector for India, Guevara shared that it can create 50 million jobs in the country by 2036.


"We are going to be creating 465 million jobs globally by 2036, depending on global travel and tourism, and a lot of those jobs are going to come to India. It's going to be one in six, so it has the potential to create 50 million jobs here in the country," she observed.

Sharing insights from the Travel and Tourism Economic Impact Research Report 2026 by the World Travel and Tourism Council, Guevara said India's travel and tourism growth is driven by domestic demand, with the sector contributing USD 263.6 billion to the nation's GDP in 2025, registering an annual growth of 7.3 per cent.

She highlighted that India needs to invest more in marketing and promotion activities to become a big international player in the travel and tourism sector.