Tourism and Modi’s Foreign Policy in Amrit Kaal

This paper discusses the integration of tourism within the foreign policy framework under Modi's administration. This integration aims to boost tourism for economic growth and leverage tourism as a soft power resource in service of foreign policy goals, including friendly neighbourly relations, regional cooperation, trade, tourism, security, and peace in the region. Given that India’s cultural, spiritual and civilization heritage is shareable with countries in South, Southeast and East Asia, it gives a unique opportunity to India to leverage these in terms of tourist sites and destinations for foreign exchange earnings, friendly bilateral relations, and also to project itself as normative power based on its claim that India stands for the values of peace, plurality, non-violence, universal brotherhood inherent in the spiritual, cultural, civilizational heritage of Buddhism, Jainism and the Vedas. This study shows that tourism-linked economic objectives and foreign policy goals remain substantially unrealized. More resources are needed for soft power projection, investment in infrastructure, and improved coordination among public diplomacy agencies to achieve the objectives.