India is one of the most favorite destinations for tourism. Many categories of tourism in India. People from all over the country and the world come to see the villages in some parts of the country, sometimes to see the beaches and sometimes to enjoy the hills like Shimla, Kullu and Rishikesh. Leave aside foreign guests, there is no dearth of domestic tourists who visit every corner of the country. The way people book tickets in Digital India is still desi.
Despite the increase in the scope of internet and digital services in the country, people are still relying more on the old i.e. offline method while traveling domestically. The National Statistics Office (NSO) under the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation (MoSPI) has released its latest report on domestic tourism. This survey has been conducted between July 2025 and June 2026 under the 80th round of National Sample Survey (NSS).
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What kind of bookings are people making?
Data from the report show that in about 44.6 per cent of overnight trips for holiday, entertainment, pilgrimage, medical treatment and shopping, people booked tourism services like hotel, transport and food directly without internet. In the entire country, the figure of direct online booking through internet was recorded only at 17 percent. In this matter there was a big difference between village and city.
What was the difference between city and village?
While in cities 27.8 percent of journeys were booked directly online, in rural areas this number was only 9.8 percent. Apart from this, booking through internet through tour operator was done in 5.6 percent of the trips and booking without internet through tour operator was done in 3.9 percent of the trips.
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Who is ahead in offline vs online?
Offline dominance was visible in work, social trips and even one day travel. According to the report, in the last 30 days, offline booking also led in overnight trips made for business, social, educational and other reasons. Of the total such journeys, 34.5 per cent bookings were done directly without internet. This share was 34.8 percent in rural areas and 33.9 percent in urban areas. At the same time, direct booking through internet for these journeys took place only in 8.3 per cent cases, of which the share was 4.1 per cent in villages and 15.8 per cent in cities.
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Indians show more trust in offline
The trend of offline booking was seen highest even in the same day return journeys. According to the report, in 23 percent cases people booked services directly without internet. This rate was recorded at 23.9 percent in rural areas and 22.7 percent in urban areas. Among one-day trips, direct booking through internet was only 2.5 per cent, which included 6.2 per cent people in cities and only 1.3 per cent in rural areas. Even in the era of Digital India, Indian travelers are preferring the offline mode instead of completely relying on tour guides or online platforms for hotels, vehicles and local services.