Govt launches National Digital Tourism Stack to build digital public infrastructure for tourism

The Centre on Sunday launched an initiative to build a national digital public infrastructure for tourism that will bring a wide range of travel products and services onto a shared digital ecosystem.

The Ministry of Tourism has partnered with the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) to develop the National Digital Tourism Stack, which aims to onboard 23,000 tourism experiences and homestays and make them discoverable, trustable and bookable by the end of 2028, officials said.

Union Tourism Minister Gajendra Shekhawat launched the project at Bharat Mandapam during an event marking World Tourism Day.

The initiative, being developed with ONDC and supported by the International Centre for DPI Innovation and Advancement (ICDIA), is aimed at making India's tourism offerings more discoverable, accessible and trustworthy, the ministry said.

The shared infrastructure will enable tourism providers to make their offerings available across participating platforms, with features including verified identities and supplier credentials, search and discovery, payments, ratings and grievance redressal.

The programme will be implemented in phases in collaboration with the ministry, states, Union territories and the tourism industry.

Tourism Secretary Bhuvnesh Kumar said artificial intelligence would form the front end of the project, with a vision of "One ticket, One pass" to bring different components of a tourist's journey together.

"Currently, flights, hotels, cabs, boat rides, or even an 'aarti' at a temple, etc., need to be booked through different websites. This fragmentation makes the process a digitally painful experience for a tourist planning to visit places," Kumar said.

The digital stack is intended to bring such services together through a unified digital ecosystem, he said.

"The project has been approved, and we will start onboarding services. The ministry would be the catalyst and lead for this project. We will work with states and UTs to curate and validate experiences," Kumar said.

A steering committee will be constituted for the initiative, Kumar said, inviting tourism stakeholders to participate.

According to a flyer shared at the event, the onboarding target of 23,000 includes 14,000 tourism experiences and 9,000 homestays.

Kumar said the initiative would also focus on tourism experiences that are not currently available online or have only a limited digital presence.

The objective is to make travel to both major cities and smaller towns "easy, safe, and in one's preferred language", according to the project note.

The digital public infrastructure is expected to help tourists discover more destinations, travel with greater confidence, book and pay conveniently and reduce paperwork.

The preparation and development phase will run from October to December 2026, followed by a pilot phase from January to June 2027, during which the first batch of experiences and homestays will go live, Kumar said.

The initiative will then be scaled up from July 2027 to December 2028 through a nationwide supply onboarding drive.

The ministry also released the India Tourism Statistics 2026 on the occasion.

The Mission for Redistribution of Tourism Demand Promotion of Lesser-known Destinations and Dekho Apna Desh 2.0 were also launched.

Shekhawat said tourists were increasingly looking for diverse and authentic experiences and were using AI-based platforms alongside traditional tourism resources to plan their journeys.

"Tourism is no longer just about visiting places; today's travellers seek authentic experiences – local cuisine, local art, local traditions and meaningful connections that create memories, not merely photographs," he said.

He said the next phase of India's tourism growth should extend beyond popular destinations and create opportunities for local communities, entrepreneurs, women and youth while making tourism more balanced, inclusive and sustainable.

The ministry also exchanged five MoUs with Airbnb, FlixBus, Glance Digital Experience (InMobi Group), Eicher Group Foundation and MakeMyTrip (India) to strengthen destination promotion, community participation and responsible tourism.

The partnerships cover homestay development and host skilling; destination promotion and responsible travel through intercity mobility; digital tourism content and visitor messaging; community-led heritage-based sustainable tourism in the Himalayan region; and promotion of unexplored villages, local shopping and ministry-identified travel initiatives.

The ministry said the five collaborations were non-commercial, non-financial, non-binding and non-exclusive.