India’s Tourism Economy Reaches $263.6 Billion With International Spend The Next Prize
New World Travel and Tourism Council research puts the sector at 6.6% of GDP and 46.2 million jobs. The domestic market remains the foundation; international spending is where the next phase of growth sits.
By SOH Edit Team
India’s travel and tourism sector generated $263.6 billion for the economy in 2025 and supported 46.2 million jobs, according to the latest Economic Impact Research from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC). The sector grew 7.3% over the year, comfortably ahead of the global average of 4.1%, and now accounts for 6.6% of national GDP and more than one in every ten jobs in the country.
That performance rests on domestic travel. Indian visitors spent $203 billion within the country in 2025, around 86% of all tourism expenditure, a figure up more than 10% on the previous year. WTTC, whose research is produced in partnership with Oxford Economics, ranks India’s domestic market among the strongest in the world.
International spending is where the room to grow sits. Overseas visitors account for about 14% of total tourism expenditure at present, and WTTC forecasts that international visitor spend will rise by almost 60% over the coming decade. India already holds an advantage few destinations can match: international guests stay an average of 18.5 days, one of the longest average visits recorded anywhere.
The forecasts are bullish. WTTC expects the sector to grow 8.5% in 2026, lifting its contribution to $286.1 billion and supporting 48.1 million jobs. Over the next ten years it is projected to almost double in size, reaching $527 billion by 2036 and climbing from the tenth largest tourism economy in the world to fourth, a rise of six places in a decade. On the council’s modelling, tourism would account for a growing share of new employment nationally, with Guevara suggesting the sector could create as many as 50 million jobs in the country by 2036.
“India has every ingredient to become one of the world's great international tourism success stories,” says Gloria Guevara, President & CEO of WTTC, who returned to the role this year. “The opportunity now is to build on this success by attracting an even greater share of international travel.”
The gaps are practical ones. Speaking at a media roundtable in New Delhi in July, Guevara pointed to visa access as a constraint, noting that India offers visa-free entry to three countries against 70 for China and 90 for Thailand. Inbound arrivals in 2025 were led by the United States at 11%, followed by Bangladesh at 10%, the United Kingdom at 7%, with Japan and Malaysia at 4% each and the rest of the world making up the balance.
The inbound recovery is already under way. India welcomed around 20 million international visitors in 2024, roughly 2.3 million more than in 2019, evidence that overseas confidence is returning after years in which domestic demand carried the sector. Converting that momentum into the spending WTTC forecasts will rest heavily on the connectivity and visa measures the council has flagged.
WTTC’s recommendations turn on closer collaboration between government and industry. They include continued e-visa reform, expanded international air connectivity, investment in transport infrastructure such as the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail corridor, sharper destination marketing in priority overseas markets, and further investment in heritage, cultural, nature and eco-tourism that encourages longer stays and higher spending.
The ambition behind the numbers is sizeable. India has set a target of 100 million inbound tourists by 2047, the centenary of independence, a figure that would place it among the most visited countries on earth. For India’s hospitality industry, the task now is to convert a world-beating domestic base into high-value, long-staying international visitors the research says are within reach.
