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Verified tourism statistics, GDP contribution, and investment attractiveness for India. Every figure anchored to WTTC EIR 2025.
Tourism GDP share
6.6%
Arrivals (2024)
18.0 million
Capex (2024)
$47.5 billion
In 2024, travel and tourism in India welcomed 18.0 million international arrivals and contributed $249.3 billion to the national economy — 6.6% of GDP and 46.3 million jobs. That places India 36th among the 42 economies tracked in the WTTC Economic Impact Research 2025. On average, each international visitor to India generated roughly $2,044.444 of inbound spending. Every figure on this page is anchored to that release — no estimates, no AI-generated numbers.
Travel and tourism contributed $249.3 billion to India's economy in 2024, equal to 6.6% of national GDP. That marks 9.2% year-on-year growth versus 2023. By tourism's share of the national economy, India ranks 36th of the 42 economies in the WTTC panel — a measure of how concentrated the country is on travel and tourism relative to its overall output. WTTC forecasts the sector to reach 6.6% of GDP in 2025.
Tourism's share of India's GDP fell from 6.9% in 2019 to 6.6% in 2024 , meaning the sector has not fully recovered its pre-pandemic weight in the economy. Over the same window, tourism employment moved from 39.8 million to 46.3 million jobs — a net gain of 6.5 million positions.
Tourism supported 46.3 million jobs in India in 2024 — 9.1% of total national employment. That ranks 24th of the 42 WTTC economies by tourism jobs. Each of those jobs is associated with roughly $5,384.449 of tourism GDP contribution — a useful proxy for sector productivity in India.
India recorded 18.0 million international visitor arrivals in 2024. Inbound visitors spent $36.8 billion — a direct injection of foreign-currency earnings into the economy. That works out to about $2,044.444 of inbound receipts per international arrival, a headline indicator of how much value India captures from each visitor.
Capital investment into India's travel and tourism reached $47.5 billion in 2024 , 4.2% of the country's total capital formation. That ranks 5th among the 42 tracked economies. WTTC characterises India's tourism investment momentum as steady, a forward signal for how the pipeline of hotels, transport and attractions is likely to develop.
Within Asia-Pacific, India's 6.6% tourism share of GDP sits alongside regional peers such as Japan (7.7%), Vietnam (7.0%), Indonesia (5.1%). Comparing these economies on the same WTTC-verified basis is what makes cross-country tourism benchmarking reliable — every figure is drawn from the identical EIR 2025 methodology.
Across the 2019–2025 window WTTC tracks, tourism's share of India's GDP moved from 6.9% to 6.6%. Sector employment over the same period went from 39.8 million to 48.2 million jobs.
WTTC projects tourism to expand to 6.9% of India's GDP by 2035, up from 6.6% in 2024. Long-range share forecasts like this are the backbone of demand-planning and investment-attractiveness analysis for India.
Taken together, these WTTC-verified figures position India 36th of 42 economies by tourism's share of GDP. With investment momentum rated steady and an expanding long-run GDP-share forecast, the data points to continued structural growth tourism economy. For analysts, the value here is reproducibility: every claim on this page is anchored to a single, named source (WTTC EIR 2025) and can be re-derived line by line — no black-box estimates, no model drift between report runs.
Statistics
India Tourism Statistics
Verified India tourism statistics for 2025: visitor arrivals, spending, GDP contribution, employment. WTTC EIR 2025 anchored.
GDP
India Tourism GDP
India tourism GDP contribution 2025, share of national economy, employment data. WTTC verified.
Investment
India Tourism Investment
India tourism investment attractiveness 2025: capex, demand momentum, 10-year forecast. WTTC-anchored.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Travel and tourism contributed $249.3 billion to India's economy in 2024 — 6.6% of national GDP, per WTTC EIR 2025.
India received 18.0 million international visitor arrivals in 2024 (WTTC EIR 2025).
International visitors generated roughly $2,044.444 of inbound spending per arrival in India in 2024 — total inbound receipts of $36.8 billion across 18.0 million arrivals (WTTC EIR 2025).
Tourism supported 46.3 million jobs in India in 2024, 9.1% of total national employment (WTTC EIR 2025).
Tourism capital investment in India reached $47.5 billion in 2024, with momentum rated steady by WTTC EIR 2025.
WTTC projects tourism to reach 6.9% of India's GDP by 2035, versus 6.6% in 2024 (WTTC EIR 2025).
India ranks 36th among the 42 economies in the WTTC EIR 2025 panel by tourism share of GDP.
Yes. Every figure traces to WTTC Economic Impact Research 2025 (last accessed 2026-05-11). DataGreat's narrator is locked to those values — no estimates or AI-generated numbers.
METHODOLOGY & SOURCE
Every numeric claim on this page is sourced from WTTC EIR 2025 (WTTC EIR 2025 — India, p. 1). Last accessed 2026-05-11. No figures are estimated, modelled, or AI-generated — DataGreat's narrator is locked to WTTC values verbatim.