Parallax · travel desk · — 25

More than half India's arrivals are Indians

You read 20 million international arrivals in 2025. Only 9.15 million were foreigners. The other 11.07 million were Indians flying home.

Ten countries sent India the most foreign tourists in 2024. The dashed line is Indians coming home.

In 2024 the United States sent 18.0 lakh foreign tourists. Indians living abroad arrived 106.2 lakh times that same year.lakh arrivals · 2024
Indians coming home · 106.2
United States 18
Bangladesh 4.66 lakh in 2025 17.5 Visa curbs from August 2024
United Kingdom 10.2
Australia 5.2
Canada 4.8

THE TOP TEN

Fewer than half were foreign

Of India's 20.22 million international arrivals in 2025, 11.07 million were Indians living abroad.

You think

Twenty million foreigners visited India in 2025. That is what the arrivals headline sounds like.

Actually

55in every 100

Of every 100 arrivals India counted, 55 carried an Indian passport and were flying home.

THE NUMBER YOU READ

Foreign tourists were the clear majority in 2014 and 2019. Then they were not. These are the six years the ministry printed both halves.

2008
The rule
2014
Foreigners still lead
2019
The pre-pandemic peak
2021
The floor
2024
The halves swap
Indians abroad overtake foreign tourists
2025
The gap widens

SIX PRINTED YEARS

At the counter every arrival states a purpose, and the ministry published three months of answers for 2025. But it never says whether it counted foreign tourists only, or everyone.

34 in every 100 of these arrivals said leisure and 33 said Indian diaspora. Medical is printed as 7.5 and drawn as 7 so the squares reach 100.

How to read this — Each square is one arrival in every hundred, and the blocks run in order of size. Pick a purpose to light up only its squares.

34 of 100 arrivals, Jul-Sep 2025 — Leisure or holiday. The other 66 did not.

Leisure or holiday · 34 of 100
The tourist you picture
Indian diaspora · 33 of 100
Here to see family
Business · 13 of 100
—
Medical · 7 of 100
Printed as 7.5, drawn as 7
Others · 13 of 100
Education, conferences, transit

A HUNDRED ARRIVALS

In 2024 the ministry published its last complete country table, so this is where the foreign half comes from. Two countries sent more than a third of it.

The United States sent 18.13% of India's foreign tourists in 2024 and Bangladesh 17.59%. Bangladesh fell 73.37% in 2025 after India restricted visas, and without it the foreign half grew 4.25%.
UNITED STATES BANGLADESH UNITED KINGDOM AUSTRALIA CANADA MALAYSIA SRI LANKA GERMANY FRANCE share of India's foreign tourists, 2024 2% 18% NO PUBLISHED FIGURE
  • Bangladesh 466,012 in 2025

WHERE THEY COME FROM

Those nine countries are most of the foreign half. Now set it against domestic tourist visits, which means trips Indians make inside India.

India logged 4,287 million domestic tourist visits in 2025 and 9.15 million foreign tourist arrivals.

Domestic visits per foreign tourist

468to 1

  • 4,287 million domestic tourist visits in 2025. Against 9.15 million foreign tourists

  • In the other direction: 32.83 million Indians left the country as travellers that year. Three departures for every foreign arrival

THE OTHER SCALE

That's the short version.

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