India tourist arrivals: 2024-25 dip, top markets data

A 2025 dip that social media linked to geopolitics

Foreign tourist arrivals to India declined in 2025, and online discussion has focused on how travel flows can shift due to geopolitics, not only prices or infrastructure. Official data cited in posts showed foreign tourist arrivals fell 9.4 percent to 90.2 lakh during 2025. That came after a recovery phase in 2024, when India recorded about 9.95 million foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs). The 2025 drop became a talking point because it was not broad-based across every major source country. Instead, the decline was heavily concentrated in one traditionally large source market. At the same time, India’s outbound tourist visits rose, creating a contrast that many commenters flagged. The result is a mixed picture where inbound softened while Indians travelled abroad more. This split is important because it changes how people interpret “tourism recovery” headlines.

2024: a recovery year, but FTAs still below 2019

Ministry of Tourism data compiled in the India Tourism Data Compendium 2025 showed FTAs reached 99.5 lakh in 2024, up 4.52 percent from 2023. Even with that increase, FTAs were still below the pre-pandemic 2019 level of 10.93 million. Social posts also highlighted the scale of domestic travel alongside inbound numbers. Domestic Tourist Visits (DTVs) in 2024 were reported at 2,948.191 million. Tourism receipts for 2024 were reported at USD 35.02 billion, or ₹2,93,033 crore in revised estimates. India was said to have a 2.02 percent share of global tourism receipts, ranking 15th worldwide. The same dataset cited an average tourist stay of 18.1 days. It also broke down purposes of travel into leisure (45 percent), diaspora (28 percent), business (11 percent), and medical (6.5 percent).

Bangladesh: the biggest swing factor in 2025

A key driver of the 2025 decline was a steep fall in visitors from Bangladesh. According to the Ministry of Tourism data referenced in social posts, arrivals from Bangladesh fell 73.37 percent in 2025 versus 2024. The total number of Bangladeshi visitors stood at 4,66,012 in 2025, down from 17,50,165 in 2024. In 2024, Bangladesh was still the second-largest source market after the United States. Posts also noted that Bangladesh had peaked in 2019 at 2.58 million, underscoring how large this corridor has been historically. The sharp 2025 fall therefore had an outsized impact on the all-India FTA total. Commenters framed this as evidence that near-neighbour flows can swing quickly. The Bangladesh move also reshaped how the “top source markets” list looked in 2025.

Long-haul markets held steady in 2025

While Bangladesh saw a large decline, long-haul markets were described online as steady. The United States remained the top source country in 2025 with 1.81 million arrivals. The United Kingdom followed with 1.07 million arrivals. Australia accounted for 0.54 million visitors, while Canada contributed 0.53 million. These numbers were frequently compared with the 2024 top-five list released in the compendium. In 2024, the United States recorded 1,804,586 arrivals, the United Kingdom 1,022,587, Australia 518,205, and Canada 476,273. The broad takeaway in discussion was that the long-haul base did not collapse in the way Bangladesh did. That distinction matters for airlines, hotels, and medical tourism clusters that rely on different feeder markets.

The quarterly pattern in 2025 that investors and operators track

Several posts zoomed in on quarterly FTA trends during 2025, not just the annual total. Data cited for 2025 showed FTAs of 2.615 million for January to March (Q1). For April to June (Q2), FTAs were 1.648 million, a sequential decline from Q1. For July to September (Q3), FTAs were 1.920 million. Another official snapshot referenced that in the three months ended 30-Sep-2025, arrivals fell 10.7 percent year-on-year to 1.9 million, after a 17.9 percent year-on-year decrease in the previous quarter. These details shaped the narrative that weakness appeared mid-year. Social media users also shared an aggregate figure of 42.63 lakh FTAs for the first half of 2025. Quarterly swings matter because seasonality, visa processing, and cross-border conditions can amplify changes.

ITAs vs FTAs: why two different “arrival” numbers trend online

A recurring point of confusion in posts was the difference between Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) and International Tourist Arrivals (ITAs). FTAs refer to foreign tourists, while ITAs include both FTAs and arrivals of Non-Resident Indians (NRIs). In 2024, India reported 20.57 million ITAs, comprising 9.95 million foreign tourists and 10.62 million NRIs. The compendium narrative suggested the surge in NRI visits lifted ITAs above the pre-pandemic 2019 figure. Bureau of Immigration numbers circulating online put ITAs at 2,05,68,622 in 2024 and 2,00,85,644 in 2025 (provisional), a 2.4 percent decline. Separately, a Ministry update dated 11-Feb-2026 referenced nine million foreign tourist arrivals in the 12 months ended 31-Dec-2025, down 9.4 percent year-on-year. The two measures can move differently, so mixing them can distort comparisons.

India versus other countries: what the 2024 comparisons show

Some comparisons shared online used ITAs to position India in the global inbound tourism table. One widely circulated figure said India ranked 20th globally in 2024, attracting 20.57 million international tourists (ITAs). The same dataset compared 2019 and 2024 levels, showing India at 17.91 million in 2019 and 20.57 million in 2024, a 14.85 percent increase. It also showed that Asia and the Pacific were still below 2019 in 2024, while South Asia as a sub-region was slightly above. Other social posts compared India’s nearly 10 million foreign arrivals in 2024 to Vietnam’s approximately 17.6 million international tourists in 2024. Because these comparisons can mix metrics, readers often asked whether the number refers to FTAs or ITAs. Still, the broad point being made was that several destinations attracted larger inbound volumes in 2024. The table below summarises the ITA recovery snapshot that circulated.

Outbound travel rose even as inbound softened

Alongside inbound numbers, posts also highlighted India’s outbound tourism. India recorded 327.1 lakh outbound tourist visits during January to December 2025. This was reported as a 5.9 percent rise over 2024 and a 21.5 percent increase compared to 2019. The outbound growth, combined with inbound softness in 2025, became a key contrast in discussions. It suggests that demand for travel among Indian residents remained strong. It also implies that the inbound slowdown was not simply about travel costs in general. Some users linked the inbound change to the composition of source markets and cross-border dynamics. Others pointed to the fact that long-haul markets were steady while the near-neighbour corridor fell sharply. For tourism-linked businesses, the mix of inbound, domestic, and outbound trends can each affect different revenue lines.

Key India arrival numbers that trended (2024-2025)

The data points shared most often were concentrated around totals and top source markets.