Datanomics: Indians' leisure overseas travel saw sharp uptick in 2024

Among top 10 destinations for Indian travellers in 2024, Thailand led with 92.93 per cent visiting for leisure, followed by Singapore (47.34 per cent) and Canada (43.09 per cent)

Indian overseas travel has risen over the past five years till 2024, largely driven by leisure trips. The share of leisure overseas travel by Indians increased from 31.9 per cent in 2020 to 42.52 per cent in 2024. Leisure travel continued to be the largest purpose for foreign departures by Indians in 2024 as was the case in the previous year, according to the India Tourism Data Compendium 2025, recently released by the Union Tourism Ministry. 

 

Leisure travel at 5-year high in 2024

 

Total departures abroad rose from 7.29 million in 2020 to 30.9 million in 2024. Besides leisure travel, which hit five-year high in 2024, Indians also travelled for the purposes of education, business, pilgrimage, etc.  

 

Thailand has highest leisure travel share

 

Among the top destinations for Indian travellers in 2024, Thailand led with 92.93 per cent visiting for leisure, followed by Singapore (47.34 per cent) and Canada (43.09 per cent).  

  Rising trend in leisure travel  Thailand’s leisure travel share rose from 91.6 per cent in 2022 to 92.93 per cent in 2024. During the same period, the total number of Indian travellers for leisure more than doubled — from 951,736 in 2022 to 1.91 million in 2024.