Quiet Transition in India’s Tourism Marketing Strategy
The Indian government has discreetly delegated its international tourism promotion to two airlines, formalizing agreements with IndiGo and Air India this week. This decision appears less a bold initiative and more a reactive measure to a virtually depleted budget.
The impetus for this shift comes amid a 9.4% decline in foreign arrivals, totaling about 9 million for 2025—a troubling second consecutive annual descent. India continues to grapple with the challenge of reclaiming its pre-pandemic tourism zenith from seven years prior.
Experts and industry professionals contend that mere marketing endeavors cannot remedy the underlying visa issues, safety anxieties, and connectivity limitations deterring travelers.
Foreign Tourist Arrivals: Decline for Two Consecutive Years
According to official Ministry of Tourism statistics, India welcomed 90.2 lakh—approximately 9 million—foreign tourists in 2025, a significant drop from 2024’s 9.95 million.
This figure starkly contrasts the 10.93 million arrivals recorded in 2019 before the pandemic. Currently, India captures a mere 1.4% of global tourist traffic, whereas neighboring Thailand attracted close to 35 million visitors and Vietnam around 21 million within the same timeframe.
The most pronounced contributor to this downturn is a severe dip in arrivals from Bangladesh. Visitor numbers from Bangladesh plummeted by 73.37% in 2025, decreasing from 17.5 lakh to 4.66 lakh after visa restrictions were imposed on Bangladeshi nationals in August 2024 following the political upheaval involving Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
This diplomatic fallout led to a net loss of about 12.8 lakh Bangladeshi visitors, overwhelming the overall decline of 9.3 lakh in India’s foreign tourist arrivals for that year.
Excluding this Bangladesh-specific downturn, foreign arrivals to India actually rose by 4.25% in 2025, indicating that a reversal in visa policy could significantly impact overall trends.
The United States remains the predominant market for Indian tourism, accounting for 1.80 million arrivals, followed closely by the United Kingdom with approximately 1.02 million.
The Plummeting Overseas Marketing Budget
The recent partnership announcements stem directly from a protracted decline in government marketing expenditures, a trend initiated well before the latest drop in arrivals.
India’s overseas promotion budget has dwindled from US$43.5 million in the 2019-2020 fiscal cycle to an alarming US$347,000 by 2025-2026—a staggering reduction of over 99% within the span of six years.
The upcoming 2026-2027 budget allocates around US$415,000 for international promotion, offering negligible relief and failing to signal a substantive turnaround.
“We have consistently urged the Ministry of Tourism to enhance India’s global visibility,” remarked Ravi Gosain, managing director of Erco Travels, in a discussion with TTG Asia last year.
“Lack of adequate funding will hinder our ability to compete on a global scale.” The Indian Association of Tour Operators has petitioned the Prime Minister and the relevant ministries for the reinstatement of the Marketing Development Assistance scheme, which previously enabled tour operators to participate in international travel fairs.
IATO president Rajiv Mehra highlighted the challenges faced by foreign tour operators engaged in group business, stating they are increasingly receiving fewer inquiries from their respective markets.
Scope of the IndiGo and Air India Agreements
The Ministry of Tourism formalized a Memorandum of Understanding with IndiGo (officially InterGlobe Aviation) on July 30, 2026, in New Delhi, launching the “Incredible India by IndiGo” initiative.
Just three days earlier, a simultaneous agreement was established with Air India. Notably, both arrangements are explicitly non-commercial, non-binding, and non-exclusive, with no financial obligations mandated from either party.
Both airlines will promote the Incredible India brand through in-flight entertainment, digital platforms, and international marketing events.
They are tasked with creating content centered on destinations and participating in trade exhibitions. In return, the Ministry of Tourism will provide access to brand assets and promotional coordination. Each MoU is set for an initial two-year term, with an option for a subsequent one-year extension.
The airlines maintain distinct operational focuses. IndiGo, as the largest domestic carrier, operates to 46 international destinations as of May 2026, predominantly across the Gulf, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Europe.
Its Gulf corridor, acknowledged as its most active region, caters to five airports in the UAE and four cities in Saudi Arabia. The airline is poised to celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2026.
Conversely, Air India aims to convert transit passengers at its Delhi and Mumbai hubs into short-stay visitors. With the launch of its Easy Connect hub-and-spoke service in June 2026, Air India endeavors to position these hubs akin to Dubai and Singapore, where stopover initiatives have notably enhanced visitor numbers and spending.
During the signing event for the IndiGo partnership in New Delhi, Union Minister for Tourism and Culture Gajendra Singh Shekhawat expressed optimism, asserting that this collaboration would bolster India’s tourism initiatives by melding the government’s flagship Incredible India brand with IndiGo’s expansive network.
Neetan Chopra, IndiGo’s Chief Digital and Information Officer, articulated that the initiative would help travelers appreciate “a country seamlessly intertwining tradition with innovation and history with progress.”
Limitations of Airline Partnerships in Addressing Systemic Challenges
Despite the laudable intentions behind these agreements, the foundational barriers obstructing foreign visitors’ access to India remain unaddressed by marketing strategies alone.
Analysts cited by Skift underscore that for India’s tourism downturn to reverse, enhancements in connectivity, visa processes, safety, and traveler assurance are imperative—all aspects absent from these non-financial marketing collaborations.
The fallout from the Bangladesh diplomatic rift exemplifies this quandary. Visa restrictions instated for political motives in August 2024 led to greater visitor losses than could be compensated by any marketing blitz targeting foreign travelers. Furthermore, no marketing campaign resonates with those unable to secure visas.
Safety perceptions constitute another critical hurdle. In April 2025, a terrorist assault near Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir tragically claimed the lives of 26 individuals, predominantly tourists, marking the deadliest event since the Mumbai attacks of 2008.
The immediate aftermath saw approximately 13 lakh hotel bookings rescinded, and the Kashmir Hotel Association reported cancellations reaching 80%.
A plethora of tourist sites in Jammu and Kashmir were shut as precautionary measures. The ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan remain a persistent concern impacting international travel confidence.
A further complication arises from disruptions in airspace. The ongoing conflict in Iran has severely restricted key air routes connecting India with Europe and North America, leading to an estimated 20% reduction in anticipated inbound traffic from these regions in 2025—an effect that disproportionately impacts high-spending long-haul tourists from India’s principal source markets.
Evaluating India’s Current Travel Viability
For those contemplating travel to India, the practicality of transport networks is paramount. Both IndiGo and Air India boast robust operational frameworks, albeit with some temporary route reductions.
IndiGo has suspended six international destinations from July to at least September 30, 2026, citing diminished seasonal demand and heightened operational costs.
These suspended routes include Langkawi, Krabi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Siem Reap. Meanwhile, IndiGo’s core Gulf routes—including Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Riyadh, Jeddah, Doha, Kuwait, and Muscat—remain well-serviced, with several routes being upgraded to the larger Airbus A321neo aircraft.
Moreover, IndiGo maintains 13 codeshare agreements, encompassing partnerships with Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines, facilitating connectivity for travelers unable to fly directly.
Air India’s Easy Connect service enables travelers from regional Indian cities—currently originating in Varanasi—to experience a streamlined transit through Delhi or Mumbai to its international network.
Plans are underway to extend this service to an additional 11 cities. For international visitors, Air India’s network connects effectively via Delhi and Mumbai to destinations across North America, Europe, the Gulf, and Southeast Asia, although some routes are subject to rationalization through August 2026 due to restrictions resulting from the Iran War.
Despite the purported benefits of the MoUs, fares for travel to India remain unabated, as neither agreement entails financial commitments nor promotional fare announcements from the airlines.
The depreciation of the Indian rupee—from roughly INR 83 per US dollar in January 2024 to about INR 90 per dollar by the conclusion of 2025—has rendered India marginally more competitive for foreign visitors, yet analysts observed that this depreciation had not resulted in an uptick in tourist arrivals throughout 2025.
India’s prime tourist season spans from October to March, coinciding with pleasant weather, ideal for exploring major attractions such as Rajasthan, the Golden Triangle, and Kerala’s backwaters.
The current monsoon season (July-September) is traditionally characterized by a decline in inbound travel, suggesting that the partnerships may commence during a period of lowest interest.
Source link: Travelerstoday.com.
