World Tourism Day is being celebrated across the globe today. Observed every year on 27th September, the day highlights the importance of tourism in connecting people, fostering cultural exchange, and supporting economic development. The theme for this year is ‘Tourism and Sustainable Transformation’, which emphasises tourism’s power to promote positive change. The day commemorates the adoption of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation statutes in 1970. It was celebrated for the first time in the year 1980.

Over the decades, the day has highlighted the sector’s contribution to socio-economic development and the advancement of the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Tourism is one of the major economic sectors, contributing to exports and promoting global prosperity.

In the last decade, the Government has taken up many transformative initiatives to scale up and revolutionise this sector so that it can realise its full potential as a force for economic growth, employment generation, and cultural diplomacy. As on June 2025, in India, inbound tourism stood at 16.5 lakh visitors, while outbound tourism was recorded at 84.4 lakh travellers. This activity contributed to foreign exchange earnings amounting to 51 thousand 532 crores rupees. In addition, as per the provisional estimates of the National Accounts Statistics 2025, the tourism sector contributed 15.73 lakh crore rupees to India’s GDP in 2023-24, accounting for 5.22 percent of the total economy.