Rural-urban divide in tourism widens, families from Tamil Nadu holiday most, Pg17

Key Highlights:

• The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) released the Domestic Tourism Expenditure Survey for July 2025 to June 2026.
• Tamil Nadu families account for nearly a quarter of all overnight holiday trips made by Indians.
• Families from Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Bihar collectively lead in 'health and medical' related overnight trips.
• The survey highlights a widening rural-urban divide in domestic travel patterns across India.
• The percentage of rural households taking at least one overnight trip declined to 35.2%, while urban households' percentage rose to 37.7%.

Detailed Insights:

• The latest Domestic Tourism Expenditure Survey covered 2.46 lakh households across the country.
• Overall, pilgrimage and religious trips constituted the largest share, accounting for 48% of all overnight trips.
• Tamil Nadu also led in the 'pilgrimage and religious' category, followed by Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.
• The number of overnight trips for holidays and recreation for rural families decreased from 5 to 4 per 100 households.
• Conversely, urban families increased their holiday and recreation trips from 12.7 to 13.5 per 100 households.
• MoSPI cautioned that the 2025-26 survey results are not strictly comparable with the 2014-15 data due to methodological differences in reference periods for 'pilgrimage and religious' trips.
• Despite comparability issues, MoSPI noted an increase in overnight trips per 100 'tourist households' for both rural and urban areas.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Domestic Tourism Expenditure Survey: A government survey conducted by MoSPI to assess travel patterns and spending within India.
• Rural-Urban Divide: The observed disparity in socio-economic indicators, including travel behavior, between rural and urban populations.
• Overnight Trips: Travel involving at least one night's stay away from home, categorized by primary purpose such as holiday, pilgrimage, or medical.