Forget holidays, Indians travelled most for religion: 47.7% of domestic overnight trips were for pilgrimage, govt survey reveals

Pilgrimage and religious travel comprised nearly half of domestic overnight trips, followed by health and medical purposes, showed a report released by the statistics ministry Wednesday. Religious travel accounted for the largest share of overnight trips undertaken during the last 365 days, at 47.7%. This was followed by health and medical travel at 29.6%, holidaying, leisure and recreation at 22.1%, and shopping at 0.6%.

Religious travel was the most common purpose in both rural and urban areas, accounting for 48.4% and 46.6% of overnight trips, respectively.

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However, health and medical travel was the second-largest category in rural areas, with a 38.4% share, while holidaying, leisure and recreation ranked second in urban areas, accounting for 36.4% of trips, as per Domestic Tourism Expenditure Survey (DTES).

The survey was conducted from July 2025 to June 2026. Among households that undertook at least one such overnight trip during the year, rural tourist households made 127 trips per 100 households, up from 118 in 2014-15.