Indians spent ₹6.5 trillion on domestic and international trips in 2018: Report

• Over 1.82 billion travellers spent nearly ₹6.5 trillion ($9.4 billion) on travel and tourism in 2018.
  
• Domestic trips account for most of travel expenditure.
  
• Travel expenditure by Indians account for 3.5% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Last year, the Indians took a staggering 1.82 billion trips — domestic and international — giving the travel and tourism industry a major boost in India.

According to a collaborated report by Google and, Bain and Company, a management consulting firm, Indian travellers spent over ₹6.5 trillion ($9.4 billion) on travel in 2018 — with domestic trips forming majority of expenditure.

On the other hand, 26 million travelers took international trips shedding nearly ₹154 billion. Around 25% of the expenditure on travel was made via online portals, which is expected to grow ₹1.68 trillion in next three years.

For people choosing leisure travel, social status has been the driving reason for a majority of Indians to travel, noted a study by Booking.com. Other than that, ‘time to relax’ has been a top reasons for leisure travel in India.

Moreover, solo travel also witnessed an enormous increase in India, with Dubai, Thailand and Singapore as the major attractions for tourism, said klook, a travel website.

Interestingly, Indians spent nearly 11% of their spendable income (saved after taxes) on tourism alone. This accounts for 3.5% of India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Infact, travel is also one of the major sources of employment.

According to the numbers from the Google report, the expenditure of Indian travellers is expected to grow up to ₹9.5 trillion ($136 billion) by 2021.

Air travel owns over half of the share in the total expenditure, as more number of people choose airways as a mode of transport to travel across locations, the report highlighted.

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