India's tourism industry is ranked no 111 out of 114 countries surveyed by the World Travel and Tourism Council. Currently the Indian tourism industry is a $3bn industry representing 0.6% of GDP. This is both a low relative and low absolute contribution to the economy. There are few economies where domestic tourism is not the biggest element of the industry, and India is no exception. But the scale of domestic tourism in India is staggering. The statistics show that domestic tourist flows are 100 times bigger than inbound international arrivals. Indeed if one compares Indian domestic tourism with the world's total cross border tourism one finds that annual Indian domestic population flows are equivalent to an amazing third of the total cross border flows in all, yes all, of the rest of the world. Each of fifteen states receives more domestic tourists than the country does international arrivals.

In his address (available for download in this article) Ian explored the three components of the industry - government strategy, the domestic tourism industry and the international tourism industry, both inbound and outbound. He suggested some of the things that need to happen to enable the scale of change that other countries have shown is possible as tourism has developed.

He concluded that "if the government, industry, businesses and individuals successfully employ joined-up thinking then the opportunities for the country are indeed enormous."