About 73% Drop In Bangladeshi Visitors Dragged Down India’s Foreign Tourist Arrivals In 2025

Last Updated:March 14, 2026, 09:47 IST

Excluding Bangladesh, foreign tourist arrivals to India actually grew by about four per cent from 82.01 lakh in 2024 to 85.50 lakh in 2025, according to Tourism Ministry data

With just 90.16 lakh Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in 2025, India’s inbound tourism remained below pre-pandemic levels and was the lowest in three years, primarily driven by about a 73 per cent drop in tourists arriving from Bangladesh, analysis of official data by News18 shows.

In 2025, only 4.7 lakh Bangladeshi visitors arrived in India, down from 17.5 lakh in 2024 and 21.2 lakh in 2023.

Between 2017 and 2023, Bangladesh consistently contributed around 20-23 per cent of total foreign tourists, making it India’s largest source of FTAs. This means roughly one in four to five foreign tourists to India came from Bangladesh.

Starting 2017, over 20 lakh Bangladeshis were arriving in India each year until 2020. In 2019, about 25.8 lakh Bangladeshi visitors arrived in India—the highest in history. In 2022, arrivals from Bangladesh were 12.8 lakh.

If Bangladesh is included, the arrivals of foreign tourists dropped to the lowest level in the past three years in 2025. Foreign Tourist Arrivals rose from 64.4 lakh in 2022 to 92.4 lakh in 2023 and nearly one crore in 2024, before slipping to 90.2 lakh in 2025.

Overall, including Bangladesh arrivals, India registered 99.51 lakh foreign tourist arrivals in 2024 against 1.09 crore in 2019. With the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus infection in early 2020, countries across the world banned or restricted travel and tourism. However, over the course of time, particularly after 2022, the situation improved with removal of travel restrictions.

Tourism Ministry data shows that inbound tourism had been recovering steadily since 2022, but 2025 broke the trend. In terms of daily average, India was registering close to 30,000 FTAs daily in 2019 that slipped to just 24,712 in 2025 after touching about 27,260 in 2024.

The decline in Bangladeshi visitors alone (about 12.8 lakh) was larger than the total drop in foreign tourist arrivals in 2025 (9.35 lakh), indicating that arrivals from other countries actually increased.

Excluding Bangladesh, foreign tourist arrivals to India actually grew by about four per cent from 82.01 lakh in 2024 to 85.50 lakh in 2025, according to Tourism Ministry data.

Bangladesh Once India’s Top Source Market

The data shows that Bangladesh was the largest source market in 2001-2003 but the USA took over the top position between 2004 and 2015. However, for the next four years, from 2016 to 2019, Bangladesh again took the top slot. The USA has remained on the top since 2021, except 2023.

There were exceptionally high arrivals from Bangladesh in 2017 (21.56 lakh), 2018 (22.56 lakh), 2019 (25.77 lakh) and 2023 (21.19 lakh).

Foreign tourist arrivals from Bangladesh surged to nearly 26 lakh in 2019—almost six times the 5.2 lakh recorded in 2013. Between 2001 and 2013, arrivals remained below five lakh in most years, except in 2008 and 2013. The number fell below that threshold again only in 2025.

Bangladesh’s share in India’s foreign tourist arrivals rose steadily from about 7 per cent in 2011 to nearly 24 per cent in 2019 before plunging to just about 5 per cent in 2025.

As the arrivals dropped to 17.5 lakh in 2024, Bangladesh slipped to second position with about 18 per cent share. That year, USA, with almost the same share and 18.04 lakh arrivals, took the top position.

In 2025, the dominance of USA continued with about 18 lakh arrivals, but Bangladesh slipped to fifth position while the UK, Australia and Canada also took over Bangladesh.

In 2023, of the 21 lakh Bangladeshi arrivals in India, about 70 per cent were for leisure, holiday and recreation and accounted for over 22 per cent of the total FTAs. Next was USA with about 18 per cent share.

Impact of Operation Sindoor

While Bangladesh has been the biggest driver, the analysis also shows that among the months, nearly half of the overall decline of about 9.35 lakh foreign tourist arrivals was recorded between May and July alone, accounting for roughly 4.54 lakh fewer arrivals.

The period coincided with heightened tensions between India and Pakistan following the Pahalgam terror attack in April 2025 that killed 26 people, after which India launched Operation Sindoor in May. Between January and July, India recorded 7.92 lakh fewer foreign tourist arrivals compared to the same period in 2024.

Throughout 2025, December was the only month when foreign tourist arrivals exceeded the corresponding figures in 2024.

Foreign Exchange Earnings

Tourism is one of the largest foreign exchange earners for any country. The importance of tourism as an instrument for economic development and employment generation, particularly in remote and backward areas, has been well recognised all over the world. The benefits of tourism can be enhanced either by increasing the number of tourists or by increasing the duration of stay of tourists in the country.

With the decline in foreign tourist arrivals in 2025, the foreign exchange earnings from tourism also fell in 2025 to $31.33 billion from a record $35.02 billion in 2024 and $32.2 billion in 2023.

Even though foreign tourist arrivals have yet to surpass the 2019 peak, tourism earnings remain slightly above the pre-pandemic level of $30.7 billion.

The sharp fall in Bangladeshi visitors in 2025 also reveals a deeper structural shift in India’s inbound tourism, with long-haul markets such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia increasingly driving arrivals even as regional dependence declines.

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