On Sunday, 10 May, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged Indians to chop again on worldwide travel as a part of a number of austerity measures to avoid wasting on international trade. His name to arms comes from Indian travellers rising as one of many high spenders on this planet.
According to a 2025 report by UN Tourism, Indian travellers spent $35 billion on abroad travel in 2024, making it the tenth largest outbound tourism supply on this planet. China topped the record with outbound tourism expenditure of $250.6 billion, adopted by the US at $177.8 billion.
Read extra about travel information
However, the expansion in spending is what makes India such a robust participant within the close to future. The $35 billion in expenditure in 2024 is a greater than 41% improve from the $22.9 billion Indians spent in 2019, simply earlier than the pandemic. The surge is predicted to be even greater in coming years. A 2024 Bernstein report initiatives India’s outbound travel spend to the touch $89 billion by 2027, making it the world’s fifth-largest outbound travel market, overtaking international locations equivalent to Australia and France.
Why are Indians travelling abroad?
Leisure remained the first cause Indians travelled abroad in 2025, accounting for 43.5% of outbound journeys, as per the Indian authorities’s Annual Tourism Snapshot 2025 revealed by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. Visiting pals and family members (VFR) made up 34.1% of travel, whereas enterprise journeys accounted for 14.6%.
Where are Indians travelling?
The United Arab Emirates emerged as probably the most visited worldwide vacation spot for Indians in 2024, led largely by travel to Dubai. Saudi Arabia adopted in second place, with the United States, Thailand and Singapore rounding out the highest 5 locations, primarily based on Bureau of Immigration knowledge.
When are Indians travelling abroad?
Outbound travel additionally adopted distinct seasonal patterns by way of the 12 months. Data by India’s Ministry of Tourism exhibits that May, December, August, September and April have been the busiest months for Indian travellers total. Trips to the UAE and Saudi Arabia peaked in August, whereas travel to the US and Singapore noticed greater visitors in May in the course of the summer time faculty break. Thailand recorded its highest Indian arrivals in December, coinciding with year-end holidays and Christmas-New Year travel.
Hidden spends
A lesser-known reality is that Indians additionally spend on journeys they don’t find yourself taking. Indians filed 1,108,239 Schengen visa purposes in 2024, collectively spending an estimated Rs916 crore on visa charges. Of these, 165,266 purposes have been rejected, translating to roughly Rs136 crore of this misplaced to journeys that by no means occurred. While a portion of this quantity would have gone to native visa businesses and repair suppliers, a considerable share went in direction of non-refundable visa charges paid to Schengen international locations.