A study on role of tourism in Indian economy with reference to identification of skill gaps in tourism industry

Tourism is one of the element of Service sector. The tourism industry of India is economically important and is growing rapidly. The World Travel & Tourism Council calculated that tourism generated INR6.4 trillion or 6.6% of the nation's GDP in 2012. It supported 39.5 million jobs, 7.7% of its total employment. The sector is predicted to grow at an average annual rate of 7.9% from 2013 to 2023. This gives India the third rank among countries with the fastest growing tourism industries over the next decade. India has a large medical tourism sector which is expected to grow at an estimated rate of 30% annually to reach about ₹ 95 billion by 2015.

Tourism is already growing leaps and bounds in many states of our country. However growth of tourism is limited by the unskilled manpower in this sector. Keeping in view the same, Government of India has taken many steps to train the human resources in tourism. One of the initiatives is the scheme “Hunar se Rozgar Tak” – A training initiative to create employable skills. Participation of the private sector institutions is one of the significant features of this programme. So far this scheme has an overwhelming response. With such schemes tourism sector would have no limits to its growth.