ABSTRACT
Tourism and hospitality have had a dynamic role in different countries and became the mainstay of the economy. Tourism, if proliferated appropriately, supports countries to accrue the benefits of the industry. Considered to have multiplier effects, tourism banks on visitors who come to a host country from other countries or are domestic visitors who move around the country. Countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, India and the Maldives have depended on Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTA) for several years. More the FTAs, the higher the benefits. India too had the facet of promoting the country as a tourist destination to the world and inviting them to be part of the tourism juggernaut. Unfortunately, the metrics are not in line with the quality of destinations in India compared to the FTAs in Thailand, the Maldives or even in Singapore. With a black swan event like the twenty-first century COVID-19 pandemic, many countries focus on domestic travellers, so does India. Just before the pandemic, several plans and policies encouraging domestic travel made their way along with the promotion of quality tourism globally with a lesser number of Overseas Tourism Offices (OTO). The Federal Government in India, in a strategic manner, ensured that domestic travel and FTAs would happen in tandem. It was done through robust global tourism promotion through the India Missions and OTOs that ensured a positive growth trajectory and the metrics that provided the ammunition for economic growth. The research team also got to interview former officers of the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India and players from the private sector that have played a role in the sectoral business operations. © 2022 Shaheed Khan and Freeda Maria Swarna M.