New Delhi: India’s foreign tourist visits in 2024 remain far short of pre-pandemic levels, leaving a nearly 10-million-visitor gap that the country is yet to bridge.
Data released by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in the 10th edition of Handbook of Statistics on Indian States, 2024-25 on state-wise tourist flows shows that foreign tourist visits stood at 2.09 crore in 2024, far below the 3.14 crore recorded in 2019, the last full year before Covid-19, highlighting international tourism is yet to fully recover to pre-pandemic levels.
As many as 26 states and Union Territories (UTs) attracted fewer foreign tourists in 2024 compared to 2019. Even compared to 2023, 11 states saw a decline in foreign tourist inflow, including major tourist destination states such as Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Puducherry and Uttarakhand.
Data also shows that Maharashtra and West Bengal saw the maximum number of foreign tourist arrivals in 2024, contrary to popular belief that Goa and Kerala are the preferred destinations among foreign tourists. The number of international tourists coming to Goa and Kerala have remained far below the pre-pandemic levels of 2019.
Goa, a global destination for beach-seekers, recorded only 4.7 lakh foreign tourist arrivals in 2024, half of its 2019 tally of 9.4 lakh. Kerala, known for its backwaters and wellness tourism, attracted just 7.4 lakh foreign tourists, a steep fall from its pre-Covid peak of 11.9 lakh.
Among larger states, Maharashtra topped the chart with 37 lakh foreign tourist arrivals in 2024, followed by West Bengal with 31 lakh—one of the few major states that has not only recovered from the Covid shock, but surpassed earlier levels.
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Domestic tourism boom
If foreign tourism is showing sluggish growth, domestic tourism is telling a completely different story.
The RBI data suggests that more Indians are travelling domestically than ever before with the numbers increasing to 294.8 crore visits in 2024, a jump of 27 percent from 2019 and 17.5 percent from 2023.
Almost every state benefited from this surge. Only six states — Bihar, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, and Ladakh — recorded a dip in domestic tourism compared to 2023. In states like Manipur, political instability and law-and-order concerns played a key role in slowing down tourism.
For domestic travellers, Uttar Pradesh (64.7 crore visits), Tamil Nadu (30.7 crore visits), Karnataka (30.4 crore visits), Andhra Pradesh (29 crore visits) and Rajasthan (23 crore) were the most-preferred destinations in 2024.
According to Anil Kalsi, the vice president of Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI), rising income levels of people and government thrust on domestic tourism have resulted in robust rise of domestic travellers in the country.
“The Modi-led government’s thrust on India has also yielded more footfalls domestically. The weddings in India have also had its share in the surge coupled with increase in religious tourism options,” Kalsi told ThePrint.
On foreign tourist arrivals not able to reach pre-pandemic levels, Kalsi blamed the government for reducing overseas spending for inbound tourism advertising. “There is a lack of fresh interest among international tourists to visit India due to lack of visibility abroad and higher air fares,” Kalsi said.
The RBI report defines a domestic tourist as someone who travels outside their usual place of residence to any location within India, staying for at least 24 hours but no longer than 12 months. Whereas, a foreign tourist is a person visiting India on a foreign passport and staying at least 24 hours in the country for leisure or business purposes.
State-wise key trends
Among larger states, Gujarat, West Bengal and Rajasthan stand out for having exceeded their 2019 foreign tourist numbers, registering an impressive jump of 281 percent, 89 percent and 29 percent, respectively.
Uttar Pradesh also posted strong growth in 2024, with 22.7 lakh foreign visitors — a 41.6 percent rise from 2023 — but the state remains more than 50 percent below its 2019 high of 47.4 lakh.
With 64.7 crore domestic visitors in 2024, Uttar Pradesh recorded its highest-ever tourist footfall, surpassing even its 2019 peak level. The 35 percent increase over 2023 can be attributed to religious tourism driven by destinations like Ayodhya and Varanasi.
Punjab, being home to the Golden Temple—one of the most visited spiritual sites in the country —saw domestic tourist arrivals fall to 2.77 crore in 2024, a sharp 22.3 percent decline from 2023. In comparison to 2019, the drop is even more pronounced at 41.4 percent from the state’s peak of 4.73 crore.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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