To unleash the full potential of tourism and hospitality industry in India, NITI Aayog has recommended a comprehensive set of visa & regulatory reforms to improve our position as one of the countries that attract large number of foreign visitors. Recommendations include a 90-day, multiple-entry Visa-on-Arrival for promising countries in staggered fashion, simplified categories of visas, ease-of-doing business measures and bolstering digital infrastructure.
These recommendations are part of the report Unlocking Growth in Tourism and Hospitality Sector: Recommendations for Non-Financial Regulatory Reforms, prepared in consultation with the Ministry of Tourism among other government departments.
Visa-on-Arrival Proposal
One of the most decisive recommendations two major points from the report is gradual transition towards Tourist Visa-on-Arrival. Under the new system, visitors from certain countries may be able to get permission at designated airports and seaports without going through the full visa process before departing.
NITI Aayog has proposed a 90-days multiple-entry tourist visa for targeted nationalities. This would enable visitors to combine India with neighbouring destinations, return to the country during the same trip or plan for a repeat visit without having to apply for a new visa each time.
The country list proposed would be closely military in nature involves use of metrics like current travel volumes, diaspora numbers, reciprocal visa access to Indian passport holders and world passport rankings The selection process would also include assessments of potential security and migration risks.
Simpler Visa Categories
The report recommends reducing the number of overlapping e-Visa classifications and replacing them with a smaller set of broad-purpose categories. The proposed categories include:
- Tourism.
- Business visits.
- Short-term medical treatment.
- Short-term student travel.
- Dependent or attendant visas.
Simplifying the system could make applications easier to understand and reduce confusion over eligibility, documentation and permitted activities.
The reforms would also require improvements to India’s online visa platform, payment systems and coordination between immigration and tourism authorities. Biometric registration and digital authorisation could help maintain security while making entry procedures faster.
Encouraging Repeat Visitors
NITI Aayog suggests going beyond just drawing first time tourists The report recommends changes which could stimulate visitors to come back, such as more straightforward repeat travel modalities, expedited processing for repeat travellers and connecting visa procedures with tourism services.
The other proposal is a Tourist Refund Scheme under which the foreign visitors would be enabled to claim back GST paid on qualifying purchases in India. These types of schemes have been used in some international tourism markets and are expected to stimulate greater spending by guests on shopping, handicrafts and local products.
Reducing Business Regulation
The report argues that regulatory complexity is restricting investment in hotels, homestays, restaurants, transport services and other tourism-related businesses. It recommends reducing the number of approvals and creating more predictable processes for enterprises throughout their operating life cycle.
Among the proposed business reforms are:
- Removing project-stage approval requirements from the Ministry of Tourism for hotels.
- Creating a single health trade licence.
- Issuing one liquor licence for hotels operating multiple restaurants or service areas on the same premises.
- Removing the separate Eating House Licence requirement for food and beverage businesses.
- Extending the validity of liquor licences and FSSAI registrations.
- Integrating approvals through digital single-window systems.
- Making licences easier to renew.
These measures are intended to reduce paperwork, lower compliance costs and allow tourism businesses to focus more on operations and service quality.
Support for Hotels and Homestays
India is looking to add more rooms as it reshapes itself in response to surging domestic and international travel demand. These include easing rules regarding hotels, homestays and small hospitality units as well.
Simpler registration and licensing may facilitate broader participation of more property owners within the formal tourism economy. This is more likely to be helpful in smaller towns, pilgrimage centres, hill destinations and rural areas where homestays can offer accommodation options without the need for large scale hotel construction.
Stronger homestay ecosystems could help funnel tourism dollars across the whole community by providing local families, guides, cooks, drivers and artisans with jobs.
Easier Interstate Road Travel
The report also discusses regulatory obstacles for vehicles used by tourists. Its recommends increasing the minimum validity of the All India Tourist Permit from 90 days to a year and abolishing entry tax levied by states on vehicles entering their jurisdiction with the permit.
Currently, conflicting state regulations, fees and tax requirements can make travel by road between states (interstate) more costly and administratively burdensome. A more cohesive system could aid operators, rental companies and passengers on ground-based itineraries, such as those traveling in groups or tourists.
Ease and more flexible travel routes can also help build multi-state tourism circuits around destinations like Rajasthan, Kerala, the Northeast, Buddhist circuit and South temple towns.
Digital Payments and Visitor Experience
Only liberalising the visa process would not make India competitive in tourism. It recommended building a stronger digital and payment infrastructure, enabling international visitors to book and purchase with ease.
Even though you are not seeking to book an Indian bank account, foreign tourists can access hotel stays, transport, attractions and restaurants shopping. Furthermore, tighter integration with digital arrival systems and travel services & payments would ensure a smoother visitor journey.
The reforms could also aid in more efficient data collection, predicting visitor preferences, travel patterns and spending behaviour of both authorities and businesses.
Tourism Growth Ambition
NITI Aayog is seeking suggestions for achieving India’s vision of attracting 100 Million inbound visitors and developing a $3 Trillion tourism economy by the year 2047.
These include cultural/heritage, spiritual tourism destinations, wildlife tourism, beaches leisure and wellness tourism, food traditions and large domestic market. The report argues that his main problem is not a lack of attractions, but the regulatory and procedural friction preventing more visitors and investors from fully engaging with the sector.
Balancing Access and Security
This would need to be cautiously rolled out where visa on arrival has been expanded. However, easier entry will need to come hand-in-hand with effective identity verification, biometric registration and immigration monitoring and risk assessment.
The model aims to strike a balance between ease and convenience with national security by restricting initial access only to select countries while facilitating digital authorisation and screening of on-arrival permissions.
In contrast, a phased adoption would enable authorities to test the system for operational weaknesses and expand eligibility to those with demonstrated results.
Potential Economic Impact
If implemented effectively, the proposed reforms could produce benefits across the wider economy:
- More international tourist arrivals.
- Higher foreign-exchange earnings.
- Increased hotel and homestay investment.
- Greater demand for local transport and tour services.
- More employment in hospitality and travel.
- Stronger sales of handicrafts and regional products.
- Higher investment in emerging destinations.
- Better opportunities for tourism entrepreneurs.
The reforms could also help reduce regional concentration by making it easier for visitors to travel beyond major gateways such as Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.
Implementation Will Be Crucial
The recommendations offer a road map for policies — but not an immediate alteration of India’s visa rules or licensing system. Coordination between central ministries, state governments, immigration authorities, airports local bodies and private-sector operators will determine their influence.
All of this is contingent on clear deadlines, less ambiguous criteria for eligibility, online systems that work and enforcement that remains consistent from state to state. Local-level bottlenecks could still impair simplified policies without these elements.
Visa facilitation and regulatory reform are the crux of NITI Aayog proposals for India tourism planen. Reforms that ease entry for identified visitors and open up new opportunities for legal delivery of these visits to the nation should help pull India’s enormous cultural and natural tourism potential through to stronger arrivals, investment, jobs and sustainable economic growth.