Indians spent nearly $10 billion in overseas travel during the first nine months of fiscal 2022-23. The highest spend in this category in any financial year was preCovid in FY20 when Indians splurged nearly $7 billion on foreign tours.
According to the latest data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Indians spent $1,137 million on travel in December 2022 alone. This takes the total spend on cross-border holidays between April and December 2022 to $9,947 million.
After taking into account the foreign exchange spent on education, maintenance of relatives, gifts and investments, Indians have sent out $19,354 million during the current financial year. This is close to the $19,610 million sent abroad in entire FY22, which was a record year for remittances.
As against a total monthly average of less than a billion dollars in remittances until FY18, Indians are now spending nearly $2 billion. The dollar splurge is primarily driven by wanderlust, with the share of travel rising to 51% of international spending in FY23 compared to 35% in FY22, which was in line with earlier years except for FY21 when it fell to 25% due to the pandemic.
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