India’s Travel Boom Is Real. The Payoff Hasn’t Come — Yet

India’s travel and hospitality sector is approaching what senior executives describe as a “once-in-a-generation” inflection point – but is it truly seizing this opportunity?

India is a fast-growing market with huge potential, but the central takeaway from this week’s Skift India Intelligence Summit in Delhi, was that it isn’t being fully tapped.

Domestic travel is the core engine, speakers said, with 2.95 billion visits in 2024. Religious tourism is a big driver, marked by the success of the holy Hindu gathering of Mahakumbh in 2025, which drew over 660 million devotees across its 45-day run, far exceeding projections.

Live tourism is a huge draw, too, with attendance at live events growing 17% between January and November 2025, during which 34,000 concerts and festivals took place. 

Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities such as Guwahati, Ayodhya, Dibrugarh, and Bhubaneswar, are increasingly important destinations, with airlines adding rout