Tourism and Economic Growth: Assessing the Role of Hospitality Industry

Purpose: The study provides a comprehensive analysis of post- pandemic recovery and emerging trends in global travel and tourism sector. The study keeps special focus on the Asia- Pacific region and India. The study examines the tourism trends in terms of GDP contribution, employment, spendings and capital investment and also suggest some initiatives for mission of Viksit Bharat@2047. Approach: The study has been conducted by analyzing and interpreting highly reliable secondary data which includes Global trends report of travel and tourism of 2025 issued by world travel & tourism council and Indian hospitality trends and opportunity report by Hotelivate. Findings: The study finds that while the global industry has shown resilience with a 6.8% year- on-year growth in GDP contribution, the recover from pandemic remains uneven. The domestic market has recovered but the international market continues to trail pre- pandemic benchmarks. In the Acia- Pacific region the recovery rate was slowest as compared to other regions and China remained behind of its pre pandemic trends. India showed a strong domestic demand and key developments of hospitality industry. The domestic demand was mainly fueled due to infrastructural developments, spiritual tourism and medical tourism. However, the trends of international visitors in India are still not fully recovered. The findings suggest that the sector is poised for long- term growth but requires strategic policy interventions to bridge the gap between domestic resilience and international competitiveness.