Sustainable tourism linked to India’s economic growth through visitor spending and arrivals

A new study from India examines how tourism expenditure, tourism receipts, tourism employment and tourist arrivals are perceived to shape tourism's contribution to local economic growth, using the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) framework interpreted through the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 8 on decent work and growth and SDG 12 on responsible consumption and production. The research, published open access in Discover Sustainability by Swarup Raj and Gayas Ahmad, collected primary data through an organized survey of 281 respondents with both domestic and international tourism experience. Rather than relying on national accounts alone, the study captured perceptions of how tourism-related economic flows translate into local growth, an approach the authors say extends the practical application of the TSA and SDG frameworks.

The results suggest that perceptions of tourism expenditure and tourism receipts positively affect tourist arrivals. Arrivals, in turn, are perceived to positively affect tourism's contribution to local economic growth. In other words, the money spent by tourists and the income earned from foreign visitors are seen as the forces that draw more travelers to India, and those travelers are seen as the channel through which tourism lifts local economies.

Not every hypothesized link held up. The study found no significant perceived relationship between tourism employment and the number of visitors coming into the country. The authors frame the work as a perception-based analytical framework rather than a direct measurement of economic outcomes.

Because the data reflect the views of 281 experienced respondents rather than official statistics, the findings describe perceived relationships among tourism indicators, not verified causal effects on India's GDP. By mapping TSA indicators onto SDG 8 and SDG 12, the study offers policymakers a template for designing sustainable, value-based tourism strategies. The importance–performance analysis is intended to help identify which levers, such as expenditure and receipts, are perceived to matter most for arrivals and local growth, and where interventions might be prioritized.

The study was published on 10 September 2026 as an open access article, with the shared version citable ahead of final copyediting. The authors position the framework as a step toward aligning India's tourism policy with the sustainable development agenda, while the perception-based nature of the data remains a stated limitation of the evidence.

Subject of Research: Perceived links between tourism indicators and local economic growth in India using TSA and SDG frameworks

Article Title: Examining the role of sustainable tourism in India's GDP growth using SDG 8, SDG 12 and the tourism satellite account framework

Article References: Raj, S., & Ahmad, G. (2026). Examining the role of sustainable tourism in India's GDP growth using SDG 8, SDG 12 and the tourism satellite account framework. Discover Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43621-026-04492-z

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s43621-026-04492-z

Keywords: sustainable tourism, India, GDP growth, Tourism Satellite Account, SDG 8, SDG 12, tourist arrivals, structural equation modeling, tourism employment, Discover Sustainability, Examining, role