India enters the year-end travel season with outbound tourism accelerating to unprecedented levels, marking a decisive shift in how Indians spend the December break. As international departures climb to fresh highs, foreign tourist arrivals into India remain subdued, extending a post-pandemic imbalance that is now reshaping the country’s peak travel calendar.
Leisure Drives a Record Outbound
Outbound demand has expanded sharply. In December 2024, 27.08 lakh Indians travelled overseas which is the highest for any December and well above the 23.56 lakh departures recorded in 2019. This year’s figures are set to surpass even that record. Travel company Thrillophilia reports an 18-25% rise in international bookings for the December window, citing smoother visa regimes, competitive airfares on mid-haul routes and rising appetite for short, experience-led itineraries.
“India continues to be one of the fastest-growing outbound travel markets globally, and that momentum is clearly visible this holiday season,” said Abhishek Daga, co-founder of Thrillophilia, noting that many properties and activities abroad are already nearing full occupancy.
The composition of outbound travel underscores the shift. Leisure accounted for just 32.8% of overseas trips in 2021. By 2024, the share had risen to 42.5%, over 13 million leisure travellers. In the first half of 2025, leisure rose further to 45.9% in the first quarter and 48.9% in the second, signalling a structural move toward holiday-led international travel. With discretionary trips now driving demand, December has become India’s busiest month for foreign departures.
Booking patterns illustrate how wide the travel map has become for Indians. ixigo reports a 40-45% year-on-year jump in December international bookings. Bali is up more than 100%, Sri Lanka 63%, Thailand 37%, Singapore 36% and Vietnam 23%. Destinations in Central Asia and the Gulf, including Almaty, the UAE and Uzbekistan, each show 40-42% growth.
“Indians are embracing diverse winter escapes more than ever,” said Rajnish Kumar, group co-CEO of ixigo, pointing to improved connectivity and aggressive holiday-season pricing. Visa relaxations for Indians in several countries just helped make them more attractive.
EaseMyTrip’s data shows a similar broadening of outbound demand. “Indian travellers have diversified their international choices during the past two years,” said Rikant Pittie, CEO and co-founder. He noted that Vietnam has already drawn “over 4 lakh arrivals in the first eight months of 2025”. For the December period, Bali bookings have doubled, Sri Lanka is up 50-60%, Thailand 35-40%, Singapore 30-35% and Vietnam 20-25%, while the UAE and Uzbekistan are each up 40-45%.
Cleartrip’s PeekABoo trends tracker shows strong winter demand for southeast Asian favourites—Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, alongside exceptional traction for Sri Lanka and Dubai. Searches for emerging, value-led destinations such as Saudi Arabia, the Maldives and Australia have increased for the December-February window. Over the past two years, interest in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan has climbed nearly 20%, while bookings to South Korea and Japan have nearly doubled. Vietnam has become the fastest-growing outbound destination, overtaking Thailand within southeast Asia.
Thomas Cook India and SOTC Travel report that winter demand is spreading well beyond December. Their internal data shows a 20% rise in searches for winter experiences and a 25% increase in cruise interest, with Europe’s alpine routes, Northern Lights itineraries and global festival circuits drawing sustained interest into March. “Winter travel is shaping up as a season of discovery,” said Rajeev Kale, president & country head at Thomas Cook India. SD Nandakumar of SOTC Travel described the season as a “rich blend of adventure, culture and wellness,” with tier-2 and tier-3 cities contributing meaningfully to outbound growth.
Post-Pandemic Paradox
Against this booming backdrop, foreign arrivals into India have remained largely unchanged. India welcomed 12.26 lakh foreign tourists in December 2019, but only 10.6 lakh in December 2024. The first half of 2025 shows little sign of a rebound: India received 4.27 million foreign tourists between January and June, compared with 5.04 million in the same period of 2019. The country closed 2024 with 9.95 million foreign tourist arrivals, still below the 10.9 million recorded in 2019.
According to DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) data, total arrivals to India—9.21 million in Q1 2025 and 9.33 million in Q2—have surpassed pre-pandemic levels, but the increase is driven more by returning Indians and business traveller traffic rather than a recovery in inbound leisure. Airline-level flows tell a similar story: Emirates carried 2.63 lakh inbound passengers in December 2019 and 2.57 lakh in 2024; Qatar Airways logged 96,862 inbound in 2019 and 99,873 in 2024; British Airways carried 57,001 last year. Outbound traffic, however, has surged as IndiGo’s December departures rose from 3.78 lakh in 2019 to 6.51 lakh in 2024, while Air India’s climbed from 3.16 lakh to 5.19 lakh for the same periods, respectively.