India Needs a New Tourism Policy — Now

India is scheduled to finally resume international flights starting on March 27 after a two-year pandemic ban that contributed a devastating impact to the country's tourism sector. Foreign tourist arrivals last year plummeted to 1.4 million, compared to nearly 11 million in 2019.

Since the pandemic began, the country reported 43 million infections so far, and around 516,000 coronavirus-related deaths. The good news is that India has administered around 1.8 billion vaccine doses and the recovery rate is now at 99 percent.

Yet as the world's second most populated country anxiously prepares for a new beginning in two weeks, India is still relying on a national tourism policy that is two decades old. Given how much travel has grown globally since 2002, it seems surprising that India has not been able to finalize a plan in all that time.

Armed with a vision, a mission and a goal, the Ministry of Tourism in India has yet again released a draft national tourism policy in November 2021, following an earlier draft in 2015.

However, six years, four tourism ministers and five tourism secretaries later, the current tourism policy is still the one that dates back to 2002. 

Why is that significant? A national tourism policy would he