Sri Lanka
USA
Canada
India
UK
UAE
The UAE continued to be the most popular destination for Indian nationals in 2024, followed by Saudi Arabia, the US, Thailand, Singapore, the UK, Qatar, Canada, Kuwait, and Oman. Together, these ten countries accounted for about 71.1% of all Indian departures last year, according to the India Tourism Data Compendium 2025
released by the Ministry of Tourism.
Indian travellers went abroad mainly for leisure and recreation (42.5%), followed by visits related to the Indian diaspora (34.6%). Business and professional trips made up 14.9%, while pilgrimage (3.9%), education (2.4%) and other purposes (1.4%) formed the remaining share.
The compendium notes, “INDs from India have shown a strong upward trend over the past three decades, rising from 1.9 million in 1991 to 30.8 million in 2024, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.7%.” After a 73% drop in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, outbound travel recovered sharply, rising 152.6% in 2022 and surpassing pre-pandemic levels in 2023 with 27.8 million departures. In 2024, departures grew 10.7% over the previous year.
Rising disposable incomes, better air connectivity, and exposure to global destinations contributed to the increase. Most travellers were from the working-age population, with 25-34 years accounting for 27.4% and 35-44 years at 24.5%. Males made up 65.8% of travellers, while females were 34.1%.
The UAE received 7.8 million Indian travellers in 2024, 25.2% of total departures, up from 7.2 million in 2023 and 6.3 million in 2019. Saudi Arabia remained second with 3.4 million travellers, up from 3 million in 2023. The US ranked third with 2.1 million departures, though its share dipped slightly to 6.9% from 7.3% in 2023. Thailand saw a revival with 1.9 million departures, up from 1.4 million in 2023.
Source : https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/
