Shwetank Singh on Union Budget 2026: A forward-looking blueprint for tourism and hospitality

The upgrade of NCHMCT into a National Institute of Hospitality is transformative: it will create a world-class talent pipeline that bridges industry needs with academic excellence, directly addressing the skilled manpower requirements of our expanding sector.

The national digital destination registry and upgrade of 15 archaeological sites into cultural destinations demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of experiential tourism infrastructure. These initiatives, combined with ecologically sustainable mountain trail development, position India to capture diverse tourism segments from heritage to adventure to wellness.
However, our long standing ask to grant comprehensive infrastructure status to the sector continues to remain a distant dream.

The sector remains focused on three priorities that will unlock exponential scale: comprehensive infrastructure status recognition beyond the current 50 destinations to enable equitable capital access across all hospitality projects; placement of tourism in the concurrent list to strengthen Centre-state policy coordination; and GST rationalization to enhance competitiveness. With India targeting a $1 trillion GDP contribution from services and 64 million jobs by 2035, these structural enablers will amplify the impact of today’s programmatic investments.

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