"Right now, IT services (industry) is about USD 150 billion, mostly export-oriented and tourism is USD 120 billion, growing at 7.50 per cent," Jagdish N Sheth, Professor of Marketing at Emory University, USA, told PTI.
"As IT services industry begins to be highly competitive globally and as we move more toward the cloud and mobile platform...Where we don't have the talent. We have the enterprise, we think that the growth of the Indian IT services will not be as great as it used to be 20 years ago," he said.
"I think, with proper intervention, if one can scale it like IT services industry did. It began as a small enterprises, suddenly they became scale-oriented and could recruit 40-50,000 graduates every year. I think if tourism can do the same thing...Tourism can learn enormously from IT services industry," he said.
Making payment system online as much as possible for the convenience of tourists would be important to make it hassle-free for the tourists, Sheth said.
"As soon as you land, you go to the exchange place. It is very problematic. You have the currency. When you are exiting, you don't know what to do," he further said.