Where Indians love to fly to, and for what?

Published by the Ministry of Tourism, the India Tourism Data Compendium 2025 is more than just numbers — it’s a snapshot of India’s wanderlust in motion. Think of it as a travel diary of millions, showing where passports were stamped most often and why.

And the verdict for 2024? When Indians packed their bags and boarded flights, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) once again stole the crown as the favourite playground abroad.

The West Asian country was followed by Saudi Arabia, the United States, Thailand, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Qatar, Canada, Kuwait and Oman. Together, these top ten countries accounted for around 71.1 per cent of all departures from India. In other words, nearly three quarters of outbound Indian air travellers in 2024 chose one of these ten destinations.

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The dominance of the UAE at the top is no surprise: its geographic proximity, strong business and social ties with India, well-developed tourism infrastructure and familiarity make it a preferred choice.

Saudi Arabia, in second place, benefits not only from pilgrimage ties but also increasing leisure and business flows.

The United States also commands a large share, driven by longer-term travel, family visits, education links and tourism.

Southeast Asian nations like Thailand and Singapore capture the interest of Indians seeking shorter, more affordable overseas breaks, while familiar English-speaking destinations like the UK, Canada and Qatar occupy a steady share for a variety of travel purposes.

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The fact that about 71.1 per cent of all foreign departures fall into just these ten destinations highlights how concentrated Indian international air travel is: beyond these key markets, the remainder is dispersed among many more countries, each capturing a small slice of the total outbound flow.

Why Indians travel: motivations and travel purposes

While destination patterns offer one view, understanding why Indians travel abroad is equally revealing. The 2025 Compendium notes that leisure and recreational purposes accounted for 42.5 per cent of all departures—making it the single largest reason Indians take to the skies.

Whether beach holidays, city breaks, adventure tourism or resort vacations, nearly half of outbound travellers are motivated by leisure.

Closely behind leisure is travel linked to the Indian diaspora, which comprised 34.6 per cent of departures. This category includes visits to family and relatives, social visits and homeland ties. This large share highlights the strength of Indian diaspora networks around the world and the prevalence of cross-border family connections. Many Indians living abroad have family back in India. Likewise, many Indian travellers abroad have relatives in foreign countries, making “visiting the diaspora” a compelling motive.

Business and professional travel formed the third major group, with 14.9 per cent of total departures. This includes trade, corporate meetings, conferences, official travel and other work-related purposes. Though smaller than the leisure and diaspora categories, professional travel remains a significant and stable driver of outbound mobility, often associated with higher spending per traveller.

A much smaller share of travel is attributed to pilgrimage (3.9 per cent), education (2.4 per cent) and other purposes (1.4 per cent).

Pilgrimage travel generally refers to those going to religious or spiritual sites, often linked to trips to West Asia—especially Saudi Arabia and other Islamic pilgrimage centres. Educational travel, while growing, still forms only a small fraction of overall departures; many Indian students abroad travel on longer term visas rather than short-term departure schedules, which may lead to under-representation in a departure-based statistic.

The residual “other purposes” category includes a mixture of health, transit, official duties not captured under business or miscellaneous motives.

Patterns emerging from destinations and travel purposes

When one juxtaposes where Indians fly with why they fly, several patterns emerge.

The UAE’s dominance is likely bolstered by both leisure and diaspora travel — combining holiday potential with family visits.

Countries like the US, Canada and the UK also draw strongly for diaspora and family reasons, as many Indians have settled or have close family ties there.

Meanwhile, Southeast Asia (Thailand, Singapore) is more prominent for leisure tourism because of shorter flight times, lower cost and attractive holiday packages.

Saudi Arabia’s high ranking has a dual nature: pilgrimage (especially to Mecca and Medina) is a traditional motivator and business or labour travel to the Gulf is also significant. But because the pilgrimage share in the total is modest (3.9 per cent), Saudi Arabia’s overall position must also reflect diaspora, business and leisure flows.

Some Indian workers in Saudi Arabia, or those visiting Indian expatriates there, may contribute to that volume.

The concentration in a handful of destinations suggests that Indian travellers prefer familiarity, ease of access (direct flights, visa facilities) and strong people-to-people ties when choosing international destinations.

Moreover, since leisure comprises the largest share of motivation, convenience, cost and familiarity tend to shape the choice of destination. Many travellers will prefer destinations with good tourism infrastructure, favourable currency exchange and established Indian tourism circuits.

The modest shares for pilgrimage, education and “other” categories also reflect the maturity of those segments in short-term departures. Pilgrimage, especially to the Gulf, remains a niche in outbound travel, constrained by visa, flight schedules and religious calendars.

Education travel often involves long-term student visas rather than short outbound journeys, so it is likely undercounted in departure-based statistics.

The “other” category, being very small, shows that most Indian travellers are well represented by the three major reasons: leisure, diaspora visits and business.

It is also interesting that business and professional travel still accounts for nearly 15 per cent of departures, signifying that corporate and trade linkages remain robust.

Business travellers often have different destination mixes compared with leisure travellers—they may favour major financial or business hubs like the US, UK, Singapore, or the UAE, even if those destinations are not top picks for vacationers.

Thus, business travel helps reinforce the popularity of such global hubs in India’s outbound mix.

The Indian love for travel

Together, the statistics above reflect that Indians are flying out largely to holiday, visit family abroad, or conduct work and that their destinations tend to cluster around countries with strong Indian ties, favourable connectivity, and established tourism or migration links.