India has 45 UNESCO World Heritage sites, a rapidly expanding middle class and some of the world's most diverse travel experiences. Yet the country attracts only around 10 million foreign tourists a year - that's less than the number for Albania, a country of just 3 million people. So what are we getting wrong?
That is the question Nikhil Kamath puts to MakeMyTrip Founder and Group Executive Chairman Deep Kalra and IHCL Managing Director and CEO Puneet Chhatwal in the latest episode of WTF is Travel.
The conversation quickly moves beyond the usual tourism checklist of airports, highways and hotel rooms. The bigger issue, they argue, is what happens after you arrive. India has built the infrastructure. The last mile is still broken. India's airports, highways and trains have improved dramatically. But arrive at a destination and the experience can still fall apart - from parking and queues to washrooms, accessibility and getting from a railway station to a taxi.
For Kalra, that friction matters. On MakeMyTrip, 95% of bookings come from Indian customers, with around 70% of booking value coming from domestic travel and 30% from international travel. And international travel is growing at double-digit rates. Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia aren't necessarily winning because they have more to offer. They're often easier to experience. The friction matters for the country as well. At the macro level, consider that Indian's spend around USD 16-17bn a year for travel under the RBI's Liberalised Remittance Scheme. That's a huge forex hole problem for the country. Which raises a more uncomfortable question: if Indians are willing to spend on travel, why aren't more of those dollars being spent discovering India?
The problem isn't simply a shortage of hotels. It is a shortage of the right hotels in the right places. Peak seasons expose the gap: rooms disappear, prices climb and travellers look elsewhere.
Chhatwal sees a big opportunity in boutique, experiential and mid-scale properties - what the conversation calls “lean luxury.” Smaller, well-designed hotels that offer a better experience without the economics of traditional luxury. And some of the most interesting concepts are being built by people who don't come from traditional hospitality.
Which begs another question: does being an outsider make you better at reinventing the hotel?
AI could take travel back to conversation
For two decades, online travel taught consumers to search, compare and click.
AI could change that again. MakeMyTrip's AI assistant, Myra, already handles 80,000 to 90,000 voice-based conversations a day. Kalra believes conversational AI could make travel more intuitive, particularly for the next wave of Indians coming online.
But hospitality has a different problem. Chhatwal sees AI's biggest near-term impact in the machinery behind the hotel - revenue management, contracts and back-office operations - rather than replacing the human experience. That distinction becomes particularly interesting when the conversation turns to robots.
Can technology run a hotel without taking the hospitality out of it?
Chhatwal's answer is clear: automation may have a place in standardised and budget properties, but luxury still depends on people.
So, how does India get from 10 million to 100 million?
Kamath puts the question bluntly: if you had five years to transform India's tourism numbers, what would you do? Kalra and Chhatwal's answer is focused on changing the system.
Their priorities: give tourism infrastructure and industry status, fix last-mile connectivity, market India aggressively as a global destination, digitise and professionalise the country's attractions and experiences, and create stronger coordination between the Centre and states.
Just as importantly, India needs to spread tourism beyond the handful of destinations already struggling with capacity. The opportunity isn’t just to get more tourists into India. It is to give them more reasons to stay, explore and come back.
And for entrepreneurs, that creates a very different opportunity set. Chhatwal's advice to the next generation is simple: don't build another travel-tech platform just because travel tech is hot. Build the hotels, experiences and infrastructure that travellers still can't find easily.
Because India's next tourism story may not be about discovering new destinations.
It may be about finally fixing the experience around the ones we already have.
The latest episode of WTF is Travel is available now on YouTube.
About People by WTF
People by WTF is a global podcast platform hosted by Nikhil Kamath, featuring in-depth conversations with leaders across business, policy, technology, culture and academia. The show explores long-term institutional, technological and economic questions shaping global society through candid, high-signal dialogue.
Past guests include Elon Musk, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bill Gates, Ajay Banga, Martin Escobari, Rishi Sunak, Akshata Murty and Ranbir Kapoor.
