Union Budget 2026-27 for Travel and Tourism Industry

Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman said, “The Tourism sector has the potential to play a large role in employment generation, forex earnings and expanding the local economy.”

Key Announcement
- To promote India as a hub for medical tourism services, proposed to launch a Scheme to support States in establishing five Regional Medical Hubs, in partnership with the private sector.” Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman stated that these Hubs will serve as integrated healthcare complexes that combine medical, educational and research facilities. She also added “They will have AYUSH Centres, Medical Value Tourism Facilitation Centres and infrastructure for diagnostics, post-care and rehabilitation. These Hubs will provide diverse job opportunities for health professionals including doctors and AHPs.”

- Proposed 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 the Government

- Proposed a pilot scheme for upskilling 10,000 guides in 20 iconic tourist sites through a standardized, high-quality 12-week training course in hybrid mode, in collaboration with an Indian Institute of Management.

- A National Destination Digital Knowledge Grid will be established to digitally document all places of significance—cultural, spiritual and heritage. This initiative will create a new ecosystem of jobs for local researchers, historians, content creators and technology partners.

- India has the potential and opportunity to offer world-class trekking and hiking experience. We will develop ecologically sustainable
(i) Mountain trails in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir; Araku Valley in the Eastern Ghats and Podhigai Malai in the Western Ghats.
(ii) Turtle Trails along key nesting sites in the coastal areas 14 of Odisha, Karnataka and Kerala; and
(iii) Bird watching trails along the Pulikat lake in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

- India is hosting the first ever Global Big Cat Summit, where heads of governments and ministers from 95 range countries will deliberate on collective strategies for conservation.

- Proposed to develop 15 archaeological sites including Lothal, Dholavira, Rakhigarhi, Adichanallur, Sarnath, Hastinapur, and Leh Palace into vibrant, experiential cultural destinations. Excavated landscapes will be opened to the public through curated walkways. Immersive storytelling skills and technologies will be introduced to help conservation labs, interpretation centres, and guides.

- Proposed the development of an integrated East Coast Industrial Corridor with a well-connected node at Durgapur, creation of 5 tourism destinations in the 5 Purvodaya States, and the provision of 4,000 e-buses.

- Proposed to launch a Scheme for Development of Buddhist Circuits in Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Assam, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura. The Scheme will cover preservation of temples and monasteries, pilgrimage interpretation centers, connectivity and pilgrim amenities.

- Proposed to reduce TCS rate on sale of overseas tour program package to 2 % (from current 2-20%). Also to reduce the TCS rate to 2% (from current 5%) for LRS remittances for education and medical.

- Provisions governing baggage clearance to be revised during international travel. Revised rules to enhance duty-free allowances in line with the present day travel realities.

- 20 new National Waterways (NW) to be operationalised over next 5 years, starting with NW-5 in Odisha to connect mineral rich areas of Talcher and Angul and industrial centres like Kalinga Nagar to the Ports of Paradeep and Dhamra.

- Government to develop Seven High-Speed Rail corridors between cities as ‘growth connectors’ to promote environmentally sustainable passenger systems. These include: Mumbai-Pune, Pune-Hyderabad, Hyderabad-Bengaluru, Hyderabad-Chennai, Chennai-Bengaluru, Delhi-Varanasi, and Varanasi-Siliguri.

- TCS rate for sellers of specific goods namely alcoholic liquor, scrap and minerals will be rationalized to 2 percent and that on tendu leaves will be reduced from 5 percent to 2 percent.

- The basic customs duty on components and parts required for the manufacture of civilian, training and other aircrafts to be exempted.