India’s travel boom widens in 2025 as pilgrimages and tier-2 cities drive growth: Paytm

India’s travel demand continued to deepen and diversify in 2025, driven by a sharp rise in spiritual journeys, festival-linked travel, entertainment tourism and growing participation from tier-2 cities, according to Paytm’s latest annual travel recap.

One97 Communications Limited, which operates the Paytm platform, stated that it recorded sustained growth across spiritual, cultural, leisure and impulse travel categories, reflecting higher aspirations and a renewed willingness among Indians to travel more frequently.

Spiritual tourism emerged as a major growth driver during the year. The Kumbh Mela proved to be a defining event, with bookings to Prayagraj increasing more than threefold during January and February. This marked a significant acceleration from 2024, when pilgrimage destinations such as Ayodhya, Shirdi and Varanasi had already recorded close to 50 per cent year-on-year growth. In 2025, searches for Ayodhya, Varanasi and Tirupati rose by 34 per cent, reinforcing faith-based travel as a mainstream trend.

Festival calendars continued to influence travel behaviour at scale. During Chhath Puja, flight bookings to Patna rose by 25 per cent, reflecting one of the country’s largest annual migration movements. Similar surges had been seen in previous years around major festivals such as Holi, underlining the continued role of cultural occasions in driving seasonal travel demand.

The data also pointed to increasingly spontaneous travel habits, with bookings rising 15 per cent immediately after salary credits, indicating a close link between disposable income cycles and travel decisions.

Entertainment tourism gathered fresh momentum in 2025, with concerts emerging as key travel triggers. Cities such as Mumbai and Bengaluru saw higher inbound demand as live events prompted short-duration trips, extending a trend that began in 2024 when concert-led travel grew by more than 40 per cent, particularly among younger travellers.

Leisure destinations remained resilient during the year. Srinagar emerged as a standout comeback story, recording its highest-ever bookings, while Goa continued to attract more travellers than in 2024, retaining its position as India’s most popular holiday destination.

A notable shift was the expansion of travel beyond major metropolitan centres. Tier-2 cities including Indore, Lucknow, Patna, Surat and Kochi registered a meaningful rise in inbound traffic, signalling deeper digital adoption and growing travel aspirations across regional India.

Paytm recently rolled out Paytm Checkin, an AI-powered travel app that offers personalised recommendations and conversational booking across flights, trains, buses and metro services on a single platform. The company informed that the app provides zero convenience fees, low-cost flight cancellations, fast refunds and a subscription-based Travel Pass offering benefits such as travel insurance and free cancellations.

With features including real-time flight updates, Ticket Assure for trains and Paytm Assured for buses, the platform aims to strengthen reliability and transparency while supporting India’s rapidly evolving travel ecosystem.