"India Marks World Tourism Day With New Digital Initiatives"
Tourism Satellite Account (TSA)
official accounting framework measuring tourism's direct and indirect economic contribution.
National Digital Tourism Stack
open digital public infrastructure to make tourism offerings discoverable and trustworthy.
World Tourism Day is observed every year on 27 September, the date the UNWTO Statutes were adopted in 1970. It has been marked since 1980 to highlight tourism's social, cultural and economic value, with a different theme and host country chosen annually. The 2026 theme is 'Digital Agenda and Artificial Intelligence to Redesign Tourism', hosted in El Salvador. This sits within a wider international push on sustainable tourism: the United Nations has separately designated 2027 as the International Year of Sustainable and Resilient Tourism, extending the same emphasis on making the sector greener and more resilient beyond just one annual observance day.
India's tourism policy rests on schemes such as Swadesh Darshan 2.0, which funds destination and circuit development, and PRASHAD (Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Heritage Augmentation Drive), which supports pilgrimage-linked infrastructure. Both are administered by the Ministry of Tourism to build facilities, diversify tourist circuits, and generate local livelihoods. Tourism's economic footprint is officially measured through the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA), an internationally standardised accounting method. It is needed because tourism spending is spread across transport, hospitality, retail and other sectors rather than forming one single industry, so a separate account is used to isolate tourism's direct and indirect contribution to GDP and jobs.
Globally, travel and tourism contributed close to 10% of world GDP in 2024 and supported hundreds of millions of jobs, showing why governments treat it as a strategic economic sector rather than only a cultural one. India applies the TSA framework domestically, and its latest estimates show tourism contributing over five per cent to national GDP, with employment in the sector rising steadily over the past few years.
The newer policy direction is digital. The National Digital Tourism Stack is an open digital public infrastructure initiative, similar in spirit to platforms like UPI or ONDC, meant to make tourism offerings more discoverable, accessible and trustworthy by giving hotels, guides and local operators a common digital backbone rather than leaving them dependent on private aggregators. …
Consider the following pairs:
I.International Year of the Woman Farmer : 2026
II.International Year of Sustainable and Resilient (Resilient) Tourism : 2027
III.International Year of Peace and Trust : 2025
IV.International Year of Asteroid Awareness and Planetary Defence : 2029
How many of the pairs given above are correctly matched?
Consider the following pairs regarding tourism-related observances:
1.World Tourism Day : 27 September
2.International Year of Sustainable and Resilient Tourism : 2027
3.UNWTO headquarters : Madrid
4.World Tourism Day 2026 host country : El Salvador
How many of the above pairs are correctly matched?
The 'Tourism Satellite Account (TSA)' is best described as:
Which of the following schemes/initiatives are administered by India's Ministry of Tourism?
1.Swadesh Darshan 2.0
2.PRASHAD
3.Dekho Apna Desh 2.0
Select the correct answer using the code below:
With reference to India's e-Visa facility, consider the following statements:
1.It was introduced in 2014 initially covering a limited number of countries.
2.It is currently available to nationals of over 150 countries.
3.Entry under e-Visa is permitted only through international airports.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
The 'National Digital Tourism Stack', recently launched by India's Ministry of Tourism, is best understood as:
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