Travel industry seeks infra status for hotels, measures to drive domestic tourism

The travel industry is hoping for infrastructure status, rationalisation in Goods and Services Tax, modifications to Leave Travel Allowance (LTA), and incentives to boost local destinations from Budget 2025.

The infrastructure status for the hospitality industry will increase branded hotel supply at lower costs, said Aashish Gupta, Consulting CEO, Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH).

The country currently has 170,000 branded hotel rooms and there is a need to have 3-4x of the rooms at present, said Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI), President, Pradeep Shetty who is batting for infrastructure status for the industry who added that infrastructure status should be granted so that more hotels can come up.

Hotel companies have thrived post-pandemic, driven by strong demand boosting occupancies across all segments.

Travel companies have also seen strong growth as Indians have increased the number of trips they take in a year from one long trip earlier to multiple shorter trips in the post-Covid phase.

The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) 2024 projects that travel and tourism will contribute almost Rs 21.15 trillion to the India’s GDP in 2024, 21 percent above 2019 levels.

 With jobs predicted to increase by 2.45 million this year, this represents one in every 11 jobs in the country.