Speaking at the India Economic Summit, Bezbaruah said the industry must form a common agenda to improve tourism in the country.

The industry needs to adopt a futuristic vision and should be prepared to meet technological upgradation and use the technological facilities to its benefits, said Bezbaruah, adding that the tourism ministry is emphasising on various tourism policies and co-ordinating with private sector for the development of tourism in the country.

"Growth in outbound tourists is more than inbound tourists. A proper promotion should be planned to increase the inflow of tourists, which at present is 2.4 million visitors a year", he said.

EIH Ltd vice chairman PRS Oberoi said it was wrong to blame the government for whatever is wrong with the state of the tourism industry.

"What has the industry done in terms of educating people, political parties and ministries on the benefits of encouraging tourism such as economic benefits and employment potential", he said.

"Everybody has its own agenda and nobody comes together to form a common agenda so that a solution can be reached to improve the state of tourism in the country", he added.

Oberoi blamed Air India for doing a dis-service to the country by not allowing other airlines to come into India. "The tourism ministry should take up the Air India case strongly. If Air India remains protected, it will lose all competitiveness," he added.

Sita Travels chairman Inder Sharma said that the tour operators should go abroad and internationalise Indian destinations to the world so that foreign tourists can be attracted.

World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) president Jean-Claude Baumgarten said with 2.4 million visitors a year, India is 46th in international arrivals. India has less than 100,000 hotel rooms while China has nearly four million rooms and Thailand has 60,000 hotel rooms in Bangkok alone.