The discussion moved beyond the conventional focus on airports, highways and hotel rooms to examine what happens after travellers reach their destinations. According to the conversation, India has significantly improved its airports, highways and trains, but the last mile remains a major challenge. Issues ranging from parking and queues to washrooms, accessibility and connectivity between railway stations and taxis can affect the overall travel experience.
For Rajesh, that friction has a direct bearing on travel choices. On MakeMyTrip, 95% of bookings come from Indian customers, with around 70% of booking value coming from domestic travel and 30% from international travel. International travel is growing at double-digit rates. Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia are not necessarily attracting travellers because they have more to offer, but because they can often be easier to experience.
The issue also has a broader economic dimension. Indians spend around USD 16-17 billion a year on travel under the RBI’s Liberalised Remittance Scheme, creating a significant forex outflow for the country. The discussion therefore raised the question of why more of that spending is not being directed towards discovering India when Indians are already willing to spend heavily on travel.
The challenge is not simply a shortage of hotels, but a shortage of the right hotels in the right places. Peak seasons expose this gap as rooms become unavailable, prices rise and travellers look elsewhere.
Puneet Chhatwal identified an opportunity in boutique, experiential and mid-scale properties, described in the conversation as “lean luxury”. These smaller, well-designed hotels can offer an enhanced experience without the economics associated with traditional luxury properties. The discussion also examined how some of the most interesting hospitality concepts are being developed by entrepreneurs who do not come from traditional hospitality backgrounds, raising the question of whether being an outsider can help in reinventing the hotel experience.
Technology was another major focus of the conversation, particularly the potential impact of artificial intelligence on travel. For two decades, online travel platforms trained consumers to search, compare and click. AI could alter that behaviour by bringing travel back towards conversation.
MakeMyTrip’s AI assistant, Myra, already handles 80,000 to 90,000 voice-based conversations a day. Rajesh believes conversational AI could make travel more intuitive, particularly for the next wave of Indians coming online.
For hospitality, however, Chhatwal sees AI’s biggest near-term impact differently. Rather than replacing the human experience, he expects the technology to have a stronger role in the machinery behind hotels, including revenue management, contracts and back-office operations.
That distinction became particularly relevant when the discussion turned to robots and whether technology could operate a hotel without removing the human element of hospitality. Chhatwal said automation may have a role in standardised and budget properties, while luxury hospitality continues to depend on people.
The conversation then turned to the larger question of how India could move from 10 million foreign tourists to 100 million. Asked by Kamath what he would do if given five years to transform India’s tourism numbers, Rajesh and Chhatwal focused on systemic changes.
Their priorities include giving tourism infrastructure and the industry status, improving last-mile connectivity, marketing India aggressively as a global destination, digitising and professionalising the country’s attractions and experiences, and strengthening coordination between the Centre and states.
The discussion also stressed the need to distribute tourism beyond the limited number of destinations already facing capacity pressures. The opportunity is not only to bring more tourists into India, but also to give them more reasons to stay longer, explore further and return.
For entrepreneurs, this creates a different set of opportunities. Chhatwal’s advice to the next generation is not to build another travel-tech platform simply because travel technology is attracting attention. Instead, he pointed to the need for hotels, experiences and infrastructure that travellers still struggle to find easily.
India’s next tourism story, the conversation suggests, may therefore depend not on discovering new destinations, but on improving the experience surrounding the destinations the country already has.
The latest episode of WTF is Travel is available now on YouTube.
People by WTF is a global podcast platform hosted by Nikhil Kamath, featuring in-depth conversations with leaders across business, policy, technology, culture and academia. The show explores long-term institutional, technological and economic questions shaping global society through candid, high-signal dialogue.
Past guests include Elon Musk, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bill Gates, Ajay Banga, Martin Escobari, Rishi Sunak, Akshata Murty and Ranbir Kapoor.
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