India had 20.6 million international visitors in 2024.
Thailand had 35.5 million.
Same continent. Same year. Very different story.
And NITI Aayog just dropped a report saying the gap isn't because tourists don't want to come.
It's because India keeps making it hard for them to.
Imagine planning a 2-week India trip.
You want Delhi → Kathmandu → back to Varanasi.
One re-entry. Simple, right?
Today? Paperwork maze. Sub-categories everywhere. Single-entry headaches.
NITI Aayog's fix is refreshingly blunt:
Basically: stop punishing people for wanting to spend money here.
Here's the stat that should sting.
A hotel project in India takes 36–48 months from approval to opening.
In ASEAN countries? 12–18 months.
That's not a gap. That's a generation of lost rooms.
👉 India's branded hotel inventory sits at just 2 lakh rooms — under 8% of total lodging capacity.
For a country chasing global tourism-hub status, that's tiny.
So the report wants to gut the red tape:
Target: drag that 48-month timeline down to 18 months.
Tourism already pulls its weight.
And this is India underperforming.
Imagine what happens when the friction disappears.
India doesn't have a demand problem.
It has a doorway problem.
The Taj is iconic. Kerala sells itself. Ladakh is on every bucket list.
But every visa form, every duplicate licence, every 4-year hotel delay is a tax on growth.
NITI Aayog's pitch is simple:
Open the door wider. The world is already trying to walk in.
That's all for now!
