Indians now travel through the year; women’s international bookings triple in 2025: Report

Travel

Indians, especially women, are travelling more frequently, visiting more countries, taking more flights and multiple, shorter trips through the year against the more common one annual vacation.

The 2025 insights shared by travel fintech firm Scapia shows how the way India travels is changing, as it shifts from being episodic to frequent and continuous.

“Travel in India has shifted from being occasional to habitual. People are no longer waiting for one big holiday; they are weaving multiple, shorter trips into their year, increasingly anchored around experiences that matter to them,"  Scapia founder & CEO Anil Goteti said.

Flight bookings grew five times, stays rose eight–nine times and card spends were recorded in 113 currencies in 174 countries, underscoring the scale and global nature of this shift.

The spread of travel widened significantly in 2025. Domestically, travellers booked trips to destinations such as Ziro (Arunachal Pradesh), Pakyong (Sikkim), Jagdalpur (Chhattisgarh) and Pasighat (Arunachal Pradesh).

Internationally, the Scapia Federal Credit Cards was used across 113 currencies in 174 countries, including Tashkent (Uzbekistan), Luang Prabang (Laos), Barbados (Caribbean) and Puerto Princesa (Philippines).

Participation is also widening demographically. International flight bookings by women tripled, with Tier-2 cities driving over 2.5 times growth, indicating broader participation beyond metros.

Among younger travellers, Gen Z accounted for 33 percent of all train bookings and 40 percent of solo female bus bookings, highlighting strong adoption of ground transport and easier access beyond major airport hubs.

Indians are increasingly stitching together flights, trains, buses, stays and forex to build flexible, experience-led journeys. This evolution is reflected in strong growth across travel categories on Scapia, wider participation from tier 2 and 3 cities, and the growing role of rewards in enabling incremental travel.

2026 in travel

Scapia’s 2026 travel outlook shows that frequency is replacing distance. In 2026, Indian travel will be defined by how often people travel, not how far.

Taking three or more trips a year will become the norm, especially in tier 2 and 3 cities, as rewards, faster booking and better connectivity reduce friction. Short, repeatable trips will outperform the once-a-year long holiday.

Shorter destinations within 48–72 hour distance will go mainstream. Destinations will increasingly be chosen for calendar-fit not popularity. Places will move from aspirational to practical because they work as 48–72 hour breaks with reliable entry and exit. Offbeat will stop meaning “hard to reach” and start meaning “easy to repeat”.

International travel will move away from city-led itineraries to experience-led trips. Festivals, dives, treks, concerts and short cultural immersions will drive bookings, with destination choice increasingly answering “what will I do there?” rather than “where should I go?”