TL;DR: India’s domestic travel is less about holidays than we might imagine, with family, faith and everyday needs driving much of it. The 80^th NSS round (2025-26) found that 36.1% of households took at least one overnight trip, almost unchanged from 36.3% in 2014-15, while same-day travel rose from 51.7% to 58.2%. Among overnight trips in the previous 30 days, 89 in 100 were for social reasons. The way people travel is changing too: in rural India, the bus share fell from 69.9% to 48.4%, while own transport rose from 9.8% to 31.6%. Among rural leisure travellers, hotel and guest-house stays rose from 13.3% to 39.8%, while stays with friends and relatives fell from 72.4% to 51.4%.

Context

When we think of domestic tourism in India, it is easy to picture a family heading to a hill station in summer, a beach during the winter holidays, or a long weekend in a new city. But the trips Indian households actually reported in the latest national survey tell a rather different story.

A large share of travel is tied to family and everyday life. Of every 100 overnight trips taken in the 30 days before the survey, 89 were for social purposes, including visiting relatives, attending weddings and other family or social occasions. Looking at trips made during the previous year, nearly half, 48 in every 100, were pilgrimages. Another 30 in 100 were related to medical treatment.

This insights edition looks at the 80th round alongside two earlier rounds of the NSS: the 72nd round (July 2014 to June 2015) and the 65th round (July 2008 to June 2009). While the survey design and definitions have changed across rounds, we look at the numbers that are meaningful to compare.

Who compiles this data?

The data is compiled by the National Statistics Office (NSO) under the Domestic Tourism Expenditure Survey (DTES) as part of the 80th round of the National Sample Survey (NSS). The survey was conducted between July 2025 and June 2026 and looked at the movement of one or more members of a household to a main destination for a particular purpose.

The survey collected more than just the destination and purpose of travel. Households were asked about the duration of the trip, number of visitors, purpose of the trip, its overall leading purpose, main destination, month in which the trip began, mode of travel, type of accommodation and the expenditure incurred. In other words, it offers a fairly detailed view of how Indians travel, why they travel and what these journeys cost.

Where can I download clean & structured data related to this?

Clean, structured, and ready-to-use datasets related to Indian Tourism Statistics are available on Dataful.

Key Insights

Overnight travel has stayed at about a third of households, while day trips have grown

Overnight travel has changed little as a share of Indian households. In the 80^th round, 36.1% of households reported at least one overnight trip, almost unchanged from 36.3% in 2014-15 (72^nd Round).

The rural-urban pattern has, however, changed, with rural declining and urban increasing. In 2014-15, 36.6% of rural households reported overnight travel, compared with 35.7% of urban households. The latest figures are 35.2% and 37.7%, respectively.

The absolute number of households travelling has still increased because India has more households today. The estimated household count rose from 25.38 crore to 29.65 crore. Applying the survey shares gives roughly 10.7 crore households with an overnight trip now, compared with 9.2 crore in 2014-15.

The bigger change is in same-day travel. The share of households reporting at least one day trip in the previous 30 days rose from 51.7% to 58.2%. Rural India saw a sharper increase, from 57.1% to 65.1%, while urban India rose from 40.6% to 46.2%.

Households that travel for the same day are also making more trips: 185 per 100 rural tourist households (those have made at least one same-day trip during the reference period of 12 months), up from 169, and 156 per 100 urban households, up from 146.

The broad picture is simple: overnight travel remains limited to about one in three households, but short-distance, same-day travel has become considerably more common.

Rural and Urban India is moving away from the bus, while Own transport grows

One of the clearest changes in domestic travel is how people are getting around. Among overnight trips in the previous 30 days, the share of rural visitor-trips made mainly by bus fell from 69.9% in 2014-15 to 48.4% in 2025-26.  At the same time, own transport, including two-wheelers, cars, jeeps, tractors and bicycles, rose from 9.8% to 31.6%.

Urban India shows a similar shift, with bus use falling from 55.1% to 43.7% and own transport rising from 11.8% to 27.8%. Train use also declined in urban areas, from 25.0% to 20.4%.

The longer-term data suggests that most of this change happened in the last decade. The 65th round, which covered overnight trips and had a similar social-travel profile, put bus use at 67.4% for rural visitor-trips and 57.0% for urban ones in 2008-09. Own transport accounted for just 11.5% and 9.7%, respectively.

Accommodation choices are becoming more commercial, but the shift differs sharply between rural and urban visitors

Across the 80^th  and 72^nd rounds, overnight stays show a broad movement away from staying with friends and relatives towards hotels and guest houses, particularly for holidaying, leisure and recreation.

In rural areas, the shift is especially pronounced for leisure travel: hotel and guest-house stays rose from 13.3% in the 72nd round to 39.8% in the 80th, while stays with friends and relatives fell from 72.4% to 51.4%. Dharamshala stays dropped from 7.7% to 1.9%.

Urban areas show a smaller shift. For leisure, holidaying and recreation, hotel and guest-house stays rose from 40.3% to 46.3%, and stays with friends and relatives edged down from 49.7% to 44.3%.

Pilgrimage, which the 80^th round brought into its “leading trip purposes”, has its own pattern. Rural pilgrimage visitors mainly stayed in Dharamshala’s (36.0%) or hotels and guest houses (20.2%). Urban ones mainly stayed in hotels and guest houses (37.9%) or Dharamshala’s (27.8%). There is no like-for-like figure from the 72nd round to compare these with.

Overall, the clearest change between the two rounds is the growing role of hotels and guest houses in leisure travel, particularly in rural India, alongside a decline in reliance on friends and relatives.

Why does it matter?

Tourism policy often focuses on hotels, flights and destinations. But the survey shows that much of India’s travel happens elsewhere: in relatives’ homes, hospitals, places of worship and on the road. Transport is also the largest non-package component of holiday and recreation spending, accounting for 32.6% of rural and 37.3% of urban spending. So a shift from buses to private vehicles changes where tourism money is being spent. These patterns also matter because the survey feeds into the Ministry of Tourism’s Tourism Satellite Account (TSA). Looking across the rounds helps show not just how much Indians travel, but how the nature of that travel is changing.

Key Numbers (72^nd Round vs 80^th Round)

• Households with at least one overnight trip: 36.3% (2014-15) → 36.1% (2025-26)

• Households with at least one same-day trip: 51.7% (72^nd Round) → 58.2% (80^th Round) (Rural 57.1% → 65.1%, Urban 40.6% → 46.2%)

• Rural bus share of overnight visitor-trips (previous 30 days): 69.9% (72^nd Round) → 48.4% (80^th Round), with own transport up from 9.8% to 31.6% accordingly.

• Rural leisure visitors staying in a hotel or guest house: 13.3% (72nd round) → 39.8% (80th round)