The United States overtook Bangladesh in 2024 to become India’s top source of foreign tourists, with over 18 lakh visitors — nearly 1 in every 6 Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs).
A total of 26,625 Pakistanis visited India in 2024 — the highest since 2022 — Tourism Ministry data presented in the Rajya Sabha shows. In contrast, 30,620 Indians travelled to Pakistan that same year, before relations between the two nations deteriorated following the April 2025 terror attack on tourists in Jammu and Kashmir.
After 26 tourists were gunned down in Pahalgam by terrorists, India suspended visa services for Pakistani nationals. All existing Indian visas issued to Pakistani citizens were revoked with effect from April 27, 2025. In retaliation, Pakistan also cancelled visas issued to Indians.
According to the official website of the High Commission of India in Pakistan, there were 10 categories of visas for those wanting to visit India — including Assignment, Business, Conference, Journalist, Medical, Official, Pilgrim, Student, Transit, and Visitor.
For Indians, Pakistan offered visas for Visit, Business, Conference, Pilgrimage, and diplomatic Assignments. Visas were also issued to students, journalists, and individuals working with the UN or other international organizations.
The numbers show that 2024 was the second time since 2019 when Indians visiting Pakistan outnumbered Pakistani visiting India, as shown in the graph.
The Ministry has not shared the data for the years 2020 and 2021 – the years when travel was impacted globally due to COVID.
About 5,000 Americans Visited India Per Day
The United States overtook Bangladesh in 2024 to become India’s top source of foreign tourists, with over 18 lakh visitors — nearly one in every six Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs). On average, about 4,944 US FTAs per day were registered in India.
As shown in the graph, apart from the USA and Bangladesh, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada were consistently among the top five FTA countries.
The analysis also shows that in the top five countries, only Bangladesh is yet to surpass the pre-COVID numbers. Over 25.77 lakh Bangladeshis arrived in India in 2019. This has dropped to 17.50 lakh in 2024.
On the other hand, the numbers for the USA have increased from 15.12 lakh to 18.04 lakh. For the UK, the increase is marginal – of just 22,295. For Australia (from 3.67 lakh to 5.18 lakh) and Canada (from 3.51 lakh to 4.76 lakh), the FTAs were higher in 2024 than 2019.
Tourist Recovery Almost at Pre-COVID Levels
Showing a consistent growth since 2022, India’s tourism sector marked a robust recovery in 2024, with nearly one crore foreign tourist arrivals, although it has not crossed the 2019 figure of over 1.09 crore arrivals.
Gujarat, Bengal, Rajasthan Lead State Recovery
The data suggests that although more foreign tourists are coming to India, their travel within the country hasn’t fully bounced back.
Maharashtra, which is the leading state for foreign tourist visits (FTVs), is yet to touch the 2019 levels, as shown in the graph.
FTAs is the number of foreign visitors arriving in India, FTVs is the total visits to various states/UTs by foreign tourists. As a single tourist may visit multiple states during their trip, the total number of FTVs is typically much higher than FTAs.
Among the states, Gujarat, West Bengal, and Rajasthan have surpassed the FTVs in 2024 beyond the 2019 levels.
In Gujarat, the FTVs increased from 5.95 lakh in 2019 to 22.74 lakh in 2024. For West Bengal, the increase was from 16.56 lakh to 31.24 lakh. For Rajasthan, the increase is from 16.05 lakh to 20.72 lakh, the analysis shows.
Apart from Gujarat, West Bengal, and Rajasthan, only a few states have seen an increase in FTVs in 2024 when compared to 2019 – Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Mizoram, Ladakh, Assam, Lakshadweep and Nagaland.
While this was about those visiting India, for Indians, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and USA are major outbound destinations.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) remained the top choice for Indian outbound tourists in 2024, with one in every four visiting the country. The number rose from 63.85 lakh in 2019 to 77.87 lakh in 2024, as shown in the graph.
Neighbour’s Arrival
While the overall foreign tourist arrivals and outbound travel patterns reveal broader global trends, examining the movement of visitors between India and its immediate neighbors has also changed in these years.
Among India’s neighboring countries, the FTA only from Nepal, Maldives and Bhutan have seen increases. The FTAs from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, China, and Afghanistan have dropped in 2024 when compared to 2019.
The FTAs from Pakistan decreased from 39,018 in 2019 to 26,625 in 2024. For Bangladesh, it dropped from 25.77 lakh to 17.50 lakh. FTA from Sri Lanka decreased from 3.30 lakh to 2.81 lakh in 2024. Myanmar’s FTAs decreased from 86,842 in 2019 to 47,588 in 2024.
For China, the FTAs drop was from 3.39 lakh to 38,960 in 2024. For Afghanistan, the drop was most steep – from 1.24 lakh visitors to just 1,253 FTAs.
Nepal has seen an increase in FTAs from 1.64 lakh to 2.02 lakh while in Bhutan, the numbers have increased from 28,178 in 2019 to 41,265 in 2024.
