Time for a central law on Tourism? Hotelier Suresh Nanda calls for an immediate attention

India has always been a country that people want to visit. The history, the food, the landscapes — there is genuinely no shortage of reasons for travelers to come here. And yet, if you talk to anyone who has worked in the tourism or hospitality sector for more than a few years, they will tell you the same thing: the rules are a mess. Not because people don’t care, but because there has never been one proper, central law that pulls everything together. That conversation — about whether India needs a dedicated tourism law India — has been going on for a long time. But right now, it feels more serious than it ever has before.

So What Is the Problem, Exactly?

Here is the honest picture. Tourism in India today is governed by a mix of state rules, ministry guidelines, voluntary classifications, and recommendations from industry bodies. None of it is fully connected. A travel agent in Delhi follows different rules from one in Kerala. A budget hotel in Rajasthan has a completely different licensing process than a similar property in Goa. And a lot of the “rules” that exist? They are guidelines on paper, not actual laws with real enforcement.

Tourism policy in India has been mostly driven by circulars and policy documents issued by the Ministry of Tourism. These set intentions and priorities are useful, but they do not carry legal weight. Nobody goes to jail or loses their license for ignoring a ministry circular. That is a real problem when you are trying to build a sector that travelers — especially international ones — need to trust.

There is also the issue of who counts as a tourism business. Right now, there is no mandatory national registration for travel agents, tour operators, homestay owners, or adventure tourism providers. Anyone can start a travel agency in India tomorrow without meeting a single nationally standardized requirement. That might sound like freedom, but what it actually creates is a situation where travelers have no way of knowing who they are dealing with. And when things go wrong — and sometimes they do — there is no clear legal path for getting it sorted.

What Does the Hotel Side Look Like Right Now?

Hotel industry regulations in India today are mostly a state-by-state story. The central government does run a star classification system through the Hotel and Restaurant Approval and Classification Committee (HRACC). If a hotel wants a star rating, it applies, gets assessed, and receives its classification. Fine in theory. The catch is that this is completely voluntary. No hotel is legally required to seek classification. Many don’t bother.

What that means in practice is that you can book a “4-star hotel” anywhere in India and have no guarantee that the label means anything consistent. The property may have done its own assessment. Or it may have just started calling itself 4-star because it has a swimming pool and a restaurant. International travelers find this particularly confusing, and it hurts India’s credibility as a destination.

Large hotel chains that operate across multiple states deal with this patchwork every single day. The compliance checklist for a property in Maharashtra looks nothing like the one for a property in Uttarakhand. The licenses, safety requirements, and local body approvals are different. For a big brand, this is manageable but expensive and time-consuming. For a small independent hotel trying to do things properly, it can be genuinely overwhelming.

The Push for a Central Tourism Law

The idea behind a central tourism law in India is not complicated. It is about creating a single national framework that sets the minimum standard — for registration, safety, consumer rights, and accountability — and then allowing states to build on that with their own rules where needed. Think of it like how food safety works in India. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India sets the national floor. States implement it. That model works reasonably well, and many people in the sector think something similar could work for tourism.

Tourism development laws, if properly written, would do a few important things. First, they would make registration mandatory for all tourism service providers. That alone would give the government a clear picture of how many businesses are operating, which, right now, nobody actually knows with any accuracy. Second, they would create minimum safety standards, particularly for adventure tourism. River rafting, trekking, and paragliding — these activities have seen serious accidents partly because there is no enforceable national standard for equipment or operator qualifications. Third, they would establish proper consumer protection. Right now, if you book a tour package and the operator disappears with your money, your legal options under tourism-specific law are very limited.

Hospitality industry news India has also been covering a growing demand for regulation of online travel aggregators — platforms like MakeMyTrip, EaseMyTrip, and Booking.com. These platforms now handle a significant share of hotel and tour bookings in the country, but their obligations to consumers are not clearly defined under any sector-specific legislation. A national tourism law could bring them into a defined framework with real accountability.

What Would Change for Travelers and Businesses?

For travelers, a proper central framework means something simple and valuable: a baseline you can count on. If a tour operator is registered under a national law, it means they have met certain requirements. If a hotel carries a classification, it means the same thing regardless of which state it is in. Right now, you largely rely on review platforms and recommendations because the official systems do not give you enough to go on.

For businesses, particularly smaller operators, there is understandable nervousness about what more regulation could mean. More paperwork, more compliance costs, more government interaction — these are real concerns. But the flip side is also real. Businesses that already follow good practices get undermined by operators who cut corners precisely because there is no enforcement. A level playing field actually helps the good actors more than it hurts them.

For investors looking at India’s hospitality sector, legal clarity is more attractive. Uncertainty about regulatory requirements is one of the reasons some international hotel brands have been slower to enter certain Indian markets than the opportunity would otherwise justify.

Where Things Stand

The conversation around tourism law in India is not going away. If anything, the post-pandemic recovery period has sharpened the focus. The sector lost enormous ground between 2020 and 2022. The argument that things were fine the way they were is much harder to make now. Industry bodies, ministry officials, and policy researchers broadly agree on the need for change. The debates are about how, not whether.

India has the tourism assets to compete with the best destinations in the world. What has been missing is the legal and regulatory foundation to match. That foundation is not a silver bullet, but it is a necessary part of building a sector that travelers trust and investors take seriously.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does India currently have a central law specifically for tourism?

No. There is no single central legislation that governs the tourism sector in India. The sector operates under a combination of state laws, ministry guidelines, and voluntary industry standards, none of which create a consistent national framework.

What is the tourism policy India is currently based on?

India’s tourism policy is primarily set out in documents such as the National Tourism Policy 2022, released by the Ministry of Tourism. These guide government priorities and spending, but are not enforceable legislation in the way a proper law would be.

Why are hotel industry regulations in India so inconsistent?

Because hotel regulation is largely a state matter, each state sets its own licensing, safety, and operational rules. The central government’s hotel classification system is voluntary, so there is no uniform national standard that all hotels must meet.

What would a central tourism law actually cover?

Most proposals and discussions point toward mandatory registration of tourism service providers, minimum safety standards for adventure tourism, consumer protection mechanisms, and some form of regulation for online travel platforms. The exact scope would depend on the final legislation.

Is a central tourism law coming soon?

There has been policy intent expressed through the National Tourism Policy 2022, but a formal draft bill has not been introduced in Parliament as of the latest available information. The constitutional complexity of tourism being a state subject means that any central law must be carefully drafted before it moves forward.

How would this affect small tourism businesses?

There are genuine concerns that mandatory compliance requirements could be burdensome for small operators. However, most reform proposals acknowledge this and suggest a phased or tiered approach, where requirements are calibrated based on the size and type of the business.