VFS Global: Helping build the tourism infrastructure for trusted mobility

Despite Global headwinds and emerging from black swan events like the pandemic and international wars, India’s tourist numbers have shown resilience. International tourist arrivals, including foreign visitors and Non-Resident Indians (NRIs), rose from 17.91 million in 2019 to 20.57 million in 2024¹, a significant increase of 14.8%.

The numbers suggest that India is entering a new phase of tourism growth, one that requires infrastructure capable of handling millions of travelers and transactions across borders and a strong, trustworthy enabler. And that enabler comes in the form of a Trusted partner: VFS Global.

India’s outbound travel market has also moved beyond pre-COVID levels. Indian national departures reached 30.89 million in 2024, up 9.79% year on year, and increased further to 32.83 million in 2025, up another spike of 6.3%².

Global Tourism enabler

The United Nations Secretary-General’s 2024 report describes tourism as a “crucial driver of economic recovery and growth”, citing the IMF’s October 2023 World Economic Outlook for the sector’s resilience and rapid rebound³. For many countries, tourism has become a cornerstone of strategies aimed at building more sustainable and inclusive economies.

But the sector is operating in an ever-complicated global environment. As governments increasingly ring-fence national borders amid growing concerns over illegal migration and cross-border security, those facilitating international tourism face the challenge of ensuring legitimate travel. That makes technology-enabled verification increasingly important.

This is where a pioneering enterprise like VFS Global, with the bedrock of trust in its operations, becomes crucial for providing the technological and operational infrastructure that sits between travelers and governments.

Transparency hub

VFS Global operates visa application and related services for governments across 160+ countries⁴. Its role sits between the traveler and the government decision-maker.

The company’s deployment of cutting-edge tech is aimed at ensuring that people are encouraged to undertake journeys, backed by proper documentation, that allow them the best mobility experiences across the globe with legal protection. Fraudsters & cheats are weeded out of the processes, so that they are unable to take advantage of legal routes meant for law-abiding citizens.

Trust at Scale

Protecting tourists' data and rights while helping governments arrive at appropriate decisions. That ensures that bona fide tourists travel with security, pride and dignity, while fraudsters are blocked from abusing that very process to swindle the world.

VFS Global CEO Zubin Karkaria in a recent interview said, "AI helps to understand forgery, and it helps to stop people using the wrong means to take appointment slots. We have a facial recognition system. If the person is not standing there and the passport face is not matching, you won’t be able to block the slot"⁵.

From visas to sustainability

Tourism is one of the world’s largest employment-generating sectors and, in several tourism-dependent countries, the biggest employer of local populations. And that is the crucial role in the global economy that VFS Global plays, and it wants to leave a positive impact on that front.

References:

1. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2220107®=48&lang=2
2. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/services/travel/vfs-global-helping-build-the-tourism-infrastructure-for-trusted-mobility/articleshow/134514652.cms
3. https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/4059447?v=pdf
4. https://www.vfsglobal.com/en/individuals/careers/index.html
5. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/services/travel/vfs-global-helping-build-the-tourism-infrastructure-for-trusted-mobility/articleshow/134514652.cms

Disclaimer: This article is generated and published by ET Spotlight team. You can get in touch with them on etspotlight@timesinternet.in