The Indo American Chamber of Commerce (IACC) recently hosted a tourism conference in New Delhi, where US Ambassador Richard R Verma spoke about creating stronger ties between India and the US in the travel and tourism sector. Verma said, “If the right investments are made, tourism in India has the potential to support 46 million jobs by 2025. Air connectivity and infrastructure development, such as road connectivity, public transit, restaurants, hotel space, as well as a focus on sanitation and safety hold key to tourism development. The capacity building and good customer service are also key to bring about qualitative changes in the tourism sector in India.”
In 2015, the US was India’s largest source of foreign tourists as over 1.2 million American visitors came to India, accounting for 15 per cent of total foreign travellers. Visitors from the US were among the top users of the e-Tourist programme. “As against this, the US received more than one million Indian visitors, who contributed nearly US$ 11 billion to the American economy. Last year the number of Indian students in the US reached 130,000, the highest number ever,” added Verma.
He also stated that the two countries have agreed to become Travel and Tourism Partner Countries for 2017. This partnership will further support Indo-US trade in travel and tourism services and people-to-people exchanges. US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker will be in India for the Strategic and Commercial Dialogue in August this year and help take this initiative forward.”
Talking about the new civil aviation policy, he mentioned, “The recent announcement of 100 per cent FDI in the civil aviation sector was a step in the right direction. I’ve seen first-hand the economic impact that regional connectivity brings to communities throughout India and its great potential to create opportunities for both business and skill development.”
