India’s travel landscape in 2025 was shaped by spiritual pilgrimages, festival-driven homecomings, and spontaneous getaways, according to Paytm’s ‘Travel Recap 2025’ released by One97 Communications Limited (OCL), the company behind India’s leading payments and financial services platform.
The data reveals sustained growth across spiritual, cultural, leisure, and spontaneous travel categories, reflecting rising aspirations and a renewed appetite for exploration among Indian travellers.
Kumbh Mela Drives Spiritual Travel Surge
Spiritual travel emerged as one of the strongest growth drivers on the Paytm platform in 2025, with the Kumbh Mela topping travel trends. Bookings to Prayagraj rose over threefold in January and February, significantly surpassing the steady pilgrimage growth recorded in 2024, when destinations such as Ayodhya, Shirdi, and Varanasi saw nearly 50 percent year-on-year growth.
Searches for Ayodhya, Varanasi, and Tirupati rose 34 percent in 2025, transforming these cities into preferred pilgrimage destinations and reinforcing India’s growing inclination toward spiritual travel. The momentum highlights a broader trend of pilgrimage travel consistently observed on the platform.
Festival-Led Demand Remains Strong
Festival-driven travel continued to shape booking patterns throughout 2025. During Chhath Puja, flights to Patna witnessed a 25 percent spike, reflecting one of the country’s largest annual homecomings. This builds on similar festival-led peaks seen in 2024, when bus and train bookings rose sharply around Chhath Puja and Holi weekends, demonstrating how cultural calendars continue to influence travel behavior.
Salary-Driven Spontaneity on the Rise
Consumer behavior in 2025 highlighted a decisive shift toward spontaneity, with bookings rising 15 percent immediately after salary credits. This pattern reveals a clear linkage between disposable income cycles and travel decisions, indicating that Indians are increasingly treating travel as an immediate reward rather than a long-planned luxury.
Entertainment-Driven Travel Gains Momentum
Concert-led travel emerged as an even stronger catalyst in 2025, driving higher demand to cities like Mumbai and Bengaluru. This extends a trend first observed in 2024, when travel for concerts recorded over 40 percent growth. Live events are increasingly influencing short-duration travel decisions, particularly among younger demographics.
Leisure Destinations See Strong Performance
Leisure travel continued its upward trajectory across the country. Srinagar witnessed record bookings, making it the platform’s most notable comeback story of the year. Goa remained in peak mode throughout 2025, registering higher traveller volumes than 2024 and reaffirming its position as India’s premier leisure destination.
Tier-2 Cities Emerge as Growth Markets
A significant trend in 2025 was increased travel to regional India, signaling stronger momentum beyond metropolitan areas. Tier-2 cities such as Indore, Lucknow, Patna, Surat, and Kochi saw meaningful increases in inbound travel volumes. The continued expansion of travel demand beyond metros reflects rising aspirations and deeper digital adoption across emerging urban centers.
Platform Innovation Supports Growth
A Paytm spokesperson commented, “Travel trends in 2025 reinforce patterns that have been steadily strengthening over recent years. From the continued rise of spiritual and festival-led travel to greater spontaneity, event-driven trips and growing demand from Tier-2 cities, users continue to place their trust in Paytm Travel. We remain focused on building a seamless, reliable and scalable travel ecosystem that supports India’s evolving mobility needs.”
Earlier this year, Paytm launched Paytm Checkin, its AI-powered travel app featuring personalized recommendations and conversational booking across flights, trains, buses, and metro services on a single platform. The service offers flexible payment options, zero convenience fees, low-cost flight cancellation at ₹99, and fast refunds.
The platform’s Travel Pass, priced at ₹249, unlocks additional benefits including travel insurance and free cancellations. Backed by real-time flight updates, Ticket Assure for trains, and Paytm Assured for buses, the platform strengthens reliability and transparency across the travel booking experience.
As India’s travel appetite continues to grow and diversify, Paytm’s 2025 data underscores a maturing market where spirituality, culture, spontaneity, and regional accessibility are reshaping how Indians explore their country.
