Why Indians travel: Religion drives overnight trips, medical trips most expensive

Households from Tamil Nadu account for almost a quarter of all overnight trips made by Indians for holidays, comfortably higher than Maharashtra in second and Karnataka in third. Meanwhile, families from Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Bihar are together responsible for more than 30% of all ‘health and medical’ related overnight trips, a new government survey conducted from July 2025 to June 2026 showed, with the numbers also indicating a growing divide in the travels of rural and urban Indians.

The previous survey was conducted from July 2014 to June 2015.

As per the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation’s (MoSPI) Domestic Tourism Expenditure Survey – released on Wednesday – an estimated 10 crore overnight trips were made in the 365 days prior to households being quizzed. These were for a variety of ‘leading purposes’, or main reasons: holidaying, leisure and recreation; pilgrimage and religious; health and medical; and shopping.

And while households who travel are doing so more frequently now, the fraction of rural families taking trips has reduced.

Rural families holidaying less

As per the latest survey, the percentage of rural households who took at least one overnight trip declined to 35.2% from 36.6% in 2014-15. Meanwhile, the percentage for urban households rose from 35.7% to 37.7%.

Further, for every 100 rural households, the number of overnight trips for holidays and recreation completed in the last 365 days declined to 4 in 2025-26 from 5 in 2014-15. For urban families, the number increased from 12.7 to 13.5.

As such, urban households are taking more holidays than before, while rural families are taking fewer such trips.

The latest Domestic Tourism Expenditure Survey covered 2.46 lakh households from across the country, except villages in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands which are difficult to access. Of the surveyed households, 1.43 lakh were from rural areas and 1.04 lakh from urban.

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MoSPI cautioned that the results of the latest survey are not “strictly comparable” with the 2014-15 one. This is because the 2025-26 survey sought information on overnight trips for ‘pilgrimage and religious activities’ in the reference period of 365 days prior to the household being questioned.

Meanwhile, the 2014-15 survey’s questions on ‘pilgrimage and religious’ pertained to the 30 days before the visit by MoSPI officials.

However, MoSPI itself compared the results of the 2025-26 and 2014-15 surveys.

In a press statement issued on Wednesday, it said the number of overnight trips per 100 ‘tourist households’ – those who made at least one overnight trip in the last 365 days – had increased from 118 in 2014-15 to 127 in 2025-26 for rural areas. For urban, the ratio had increased from 121 to 132.

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As explained above, the 2014-15 figures of 118 and 121 mentioned by the statistics ministry do not include overnight trips made for ‘religious and pilgrimage’ purposes as the previous survey had asked this question for the prior 30-day period.

In 2014-15, 8 overnight trips per 100 tourist households were made in rural areas in the previous 30 days, while 11 were made by urban households.

Tamil Nadu on the move

Overall, the 2025-26 survey showed holidaying was the main purpose for 22% of trips, pilgrimage and religious trips 48%, and health and medical reasons were behind almost 30% of them.

Tamil Nadu accounted for 23.8% of overnight holiday trips, followed by Maharashtra (9.6%), and Karnataka (8.6%).

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Tamil Nadu also led in the ‘pilgrimage and religious’ category and was responsible for 14.8% of these trips, followed by Uttar Pradesh (13.6%), and Rajasthan (9.2%).

The largest contributors to health and medical trips were Uttar Pradesh (12.1%), West Bengal (10.9%), and Bihar (8.9%).

The most money was spent on health and medical trips.

In rural areas – state-wise estimates were not available – households spent Rs 29,454 on trips in the last 365 days where the leading purpose of travel was medical and health related. For urban areas, the figure was Rs 41,649. The all-India average was Rs 32,167.

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In comparison, the amount spent on overnight holiday trips was Rs 11,723, while that on religious trips was Rs 7,694.

Expenditures include any relevant spending – irrespective of the mode of payment – even if it was made before or after the trip.

Interestingly, only 11% of overnight trips completed in the previous 365 days for the purpose of holidaying, pilgrimage and religious, health and medical, and shopping reasons used a tour operator or guide.

Same-day trips

In addition to overnight trips, details were also sought on same-day trips made in the last 30 days.

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Nationally, 58% of households reported making at least one same-day trip in the last 30 days. The percentage was highest for Tripura, at nearly 90%. This means nine out of 10 families of Tripura made at least one same-day trip in the 30 days before they were asked the question.

Meanwhile, the island Union Territory of Lakshadweep saw the fewest: just 0.7%.

While ‘pilgrimage and religious’ was the main reason for nearly half of all overnight trips, ‘social’ and ‘shopping’ were the leading purposes for nearly 60% of all same-day trips.