Indians went abroad less! Foreign trip expenditure decreased by 16 percent in March

The expenditure by Indians on foreign travel has declined sharply in March 2026. According to the latest data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), expenditure on foreign travel declined from $1.3 billion in February to $1.09 billion in March. That means a decline of about 16 percent has been recorded in just one month. This expenditure in January was 1.65 billion dollars.

This data of RBI is based on the money sent abroad under the Liberalized Remittance Scheme i.e. LRS. Under this scheme, Indian citizens can send up to 2.5 lakh dollars abroad in a financial year. This includes categories like travel, education, expenses of relatives, investment and property purchase.

Experts believe that the ongoing tension in West Asia, rising crude oil prices and falling value of rupee have forced people to reduce spending on foreign travel. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also recently appealed to the people to reduce foreign trips and adopt measures like carpooling to save foreign exchange.

Here is the expense account

Total outward remittances in March stood at $2.59 billion, in which the travel category had the highest share. Travel expenses are divided into business travel, pilgrimage, medical treatment, education travel and other travel. Among these, the maximum expenditure of $623.05 million was spent in other travel categories. This category includes foreign holiday trips and international credit card payments.

Expenses on education related travel

Indians spent $450.16 million on education-related travel in March. The total expenditure on business travel, medical treatment and pilgrimage was $21.39 million. Interestingly, despite the decline in foreign travel expenses, foreign investment by Indians has increased. Indians invested $440.22 million in equity and debt instruments in March, which is much more than in February. On the other hand, the expenditure on purchasing property abroad decreased to $38.68 million.

RBI data also shows that a total of $29.56 billion was sent abroad under LRS in 2024-25, of which travel accounted for the largest share. It is clear from this that foreign travel still remains a major part of the expenditure of Indians, but the current economic conditions have slowed it down.

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