Budget 2026 To Boost Tourism With Cheaper International Travel, New Tourism Hubs And World-Class Experiences

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday announced that the tourism sector has the potential to play a large role in employment generation and forex earnings.

Presenting the Union Budget 2026-27 in Parliament, Sitharaman said, "I propose to set up a National Institute of Hospitality by upgrading the existing National Council For Hotel Management And Catering Technology. It will function as a bridge between academia, industry and government."

Sitharaman also proposed a pilot scheme to train guides in tourism hubs across India.

Ecologically Sustainable Mountain And Turtle Trails

"India has the potential and opportunity to offer world-class trekking and hiking experiences. We will develop ecologically sustainable mountain trails in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Jammu and Kashmir. Also in Araku Valley in the Eastern Ghats and Pothigai Malai in the Western Ghats," the finance minister said in her Budget speech.

Further, turtle trails along key nesting sites in Orissa, Karnataka, and Kerala are to be developed.

Archaeological Sites To Become Cultural Destinations

15 archaeological sites will be developed into vibrant, experiential cultural destinations. She added, "Excavated landscapes will be open to the public through curated walkways."

Cheaper International Travel

The Union Budget 2026 has made international travel more affordable for Indians. The TCS on international tour programmes will drop from the existing 5% and 20% rates to a flat 2%, with no minimum amount condition.

5 Tourism Hubs In Purvodaya States

The government will create five tourism destinations in the 5 Purvodaya states (Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, and Andhra Pradesh) and will make provisions for 4,000 e-buses.

7 High-Speed Rail Corridors

India will develop seven high-speed rail corridors between key cities. These corridors will serve as 'growth connectors' to promote environmentally sustainable passenger systems. These high-speed corridors will connect Mumbai and Pune, Hyderabad and Pune, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai, Chennai and Bengaluru, Delhi and Varanasi, and Varanasi and Siliguri, Sitharaman said.

5 Regional Hubs For Medical Tourism

The government will establish five regional medical hubs in partnership with the private sector. These hubs will serve as integrated healthcare complexes that combine medical, educational and research facilities.

They will have AYUSH centres, medical value tourism facilitation centres and infrastructure for diagnostics, post care and rehabilitation, Sitharaman said.

Travel Industry Reactions To Budget 2026

Karan Agarwal, Director, Cox & Kings, "What stood out for me in this Budget is that it doesn't treat travel as a one-sided story. Outbound travel needed a course correction, and cutting TCS on foreign tour packages to 2% does exactly that; it takes away a friction that travellers were feeling every time they planned a trip."

He added, "On the inbound side, the intent is clearly longer-term. What stands out is the emphasis on cultural and experiential travel, whether through developing archaeological sites, strengthening Buddhist circuits, or building skilled local guide networks, which tells us the focus is finally shifting to how India is experienced, not just how many people arrive. If this is executed well, it could move Indian tourism from being crowded and transactional to curated and experience-led."

Rajesh Magow, Chair, FICCI Tourism Committee and Co-founder & Group CEO, MakeMyTrip, said, "The Budget reinforces the government's sustained focus on travel and tourism as a long-term growth driver. The rationalisation of TCS on overseas tour packages is a welcome step that addresses the upfront liquidity impact on Indian outbound travellers. The government's infrastructure-led investments have played an important role in supporting the growth of domestic tourism, and it is encouraging to see this momentum being sustained."

He added, "Continued focus on regional connectivity and destination development, along with an emphasis on skilling and the creation of a national digital repository for destinations, will help improve destination discovery and enhance the overall traveller experience."