India has the potential to become the number one tourist destination in the world with the demand growing at 10.1 per cent per annum, the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) has predicted. The WTO (World Travel Organisation) predicts that India will receive 25 million tourists by year 2015.

Major attractions in India are the world’s highest mountains, miles of coastline with excellent beaches, tropical forests and wildlife, desert safari, lagoon backwaters, ancient monuments, forts and palaces, adventure tourism and, of course, the Taj Mahal. India currently has over 200,000 hotel rooms spread across hotel categories and guest-houses and is still facing a shortfall of over 100,000 rooms (source: FHRAI). The country is witnessing an unprecedented growth in hotel constructions and will be adding almost 114,000 hotel guest rooms to its inventory over the next five years. (source: HVS)

The earlier setbacks in global tourism have strengthened the Department of Tourism’s resolve to promote India’s tourism through aggressive marketing strategies through its campaign ‘Incredible India’. The ‘marketing mantra’ for the Department of Tourism is to position India as a global brand to take advantage of the burgeoning global travel and trade and the vast untapped potential of India as a destination.