The Global Experiential Travel Market is now valued at $250 billion and it's projected to nearly
double by 2032 which is only seven years from now, to almost 500 billion or 470 billion. These numbers are based on revenue from bookable tours activity and experiences. They don't include all of the ancillary spend that goes on around the actual experience itself.
Scott Wegener, Head of Asia Pacific at Tripadvisor, while addressing the audience during the opening keynote at ITB India 2025 highlighted South Asia’s pivotal role in shaping global tourism growth. His topic of discussion was “Experience-Driven Travel: Trends and Insights on what South Asia Travellers are Truly Seeking in 2025 and Beyond”.
Experiential travel the norm not a trend
South Asia currently makes up 10% of that global number, so 25 billion. But the expectation is and all the trends are telling us that South Asia's percentage of that whole global spend is going to jump from 10% to 15% by 2032 so for South Asia, it's going to be valued at 70 billion by 2032 which is just massive. That means millions more experiences, booked, posted and reviewed. No one in the room can afford to treat experiential travel as a trend. It's the new norm, and the momentum is not slowing.
“A recent trip advisor survey of our users found that of the global audience surveyed 85 % agreed that activities and experiences are an important part of their travel budget, and 84% agreed that they prioritize planned activities and experiences on their trip. We've been tracking these numbers for a while now, and they continue to climb, and we don't expect them to kind of plateau or even decline.”
Indians prioritize planned activities
Experiences have moved from nice to have into the essential component of travel spend focusing on South Asia, the story is even stronger in India. “In terms of prioritizing on Trip experiences, 91% agreed that activities and experiences are an important part of their travel budget, and 92% agreed that they prioritize planned activities and experiences while they're on their trip. India travellers are now the world's most experience focused Travel Market.”
Post pandemic Travel has become a privilege
The pandemic had a huge effect. Covid rewired priorities. Travel is no longer taken for granted. It's no longer a given, It's a privilege. The value of health, connection and meaning is front and centre for travellers
Secondly, digital fatigue. Digital fatigue is real. More and more people are getting screen burnout. They hunger for tactile face-to- face connection, experiences and meaning more than ever.
And third, the rising middle class is growing fast. Nowhere is this more prevalent than right here in India,
rising disposable income plus global exposure is making experiential travel mainstream acceptable and expected. “India will be the world's fifth largest outbound market by 2027 outbound trips will climb from 30 million in 2024 to over 50 million in 2030 again, only five years away.” These forces together aren't just changing travel destinations. They're changing the very DNA of the traveller.
Gen Z and millennials are the fastest growing middleclass
“Gen Z and millennials are the fastest growing middle-class segment driven by urbanization, higher education and think digital roots and digital connectivity, they will constitute 60% of South Asia's travel spend.”
And just to make sure everyone's familiar with Gen Z and millennials, as of 2025 Gen Zs are aged between 13 to 28 and millennials are aged between 29 and 44 so basically, we're talking about that age group between, say, 21 when they start making independent travel decisions, till 44 are super important.
A generation wired for experiences
Gen Z and millennials are actively seeking experiences that provide meaningful, unique travel adventures that allow them to a immerse themselves in the culture and live like a local. They're desperate to experience life as a local in the destinations that they've travelled to, 84%
in the same survey said that they prefer off the beaten path destinations, and 79% say they would love to partake in a day in the life of a local in the destination that they're visiting. They are a generation wired for experience, not just transactions.
Gen Z and millennials have a high propensity to plan and book their activities ahead of their travel. They're already always thinking about their planning, and they want to book in advance. They want to know that they've got this organized again. India, Gen Z are millennials significantly over index compared to the global average. In our survey, 65% compared to the global average, of 46% say that they book or plan to book activities ahead of their brands who can offer easy, unique, engaging, walkable experiences and to win with this lucrative, always planning generation.
Looking at the Indian Market
12 million India users that come to Trip Advisor every month
Tripadvisor have a rich data set of what India users are actually looking at, how they're thinking about travel inspiration, planning and booking. First of all, we'll look at outbound travel trends.
From an international perspective
So, this is India users on TripAdvisor looking at international destinations. These are the top 10 countries looked at by India users on Trip Advisor during the month of January to June, 2025. So what we can see is Thailand, the UAE, Vietnam and Indonesia are surging for Indian travellers. My take on it is the travellers, and particularly this growing middle class, there's a higher propensity of outbound travel, and they're looking and seeking regional proximity, cultural nuance and increasingly sophisticated, experienced menus.
Then if we look at the top 10 attractions that India users were looking at on Trip Advisor during the months of January to June 2025 we can see that this list consists primarily of outdoor nature parks, cultural sites, religious sites and landmarks. Pre covid, this list would have been dominated by shopping destinations and beaches. But now for India, travellers outbound, international authenticity and adventure are all the go.
From a domestic perspective
So this is India users on Trip Advisor looking at India domestic destinations and attractions. These are the top 10 cities during the months of January to June, 2025 and again, there's probably a lot of cities listed there that you would expect to be on this list. The ones I want to focus on are Pune, Rishikesh and Mysore. They are trending up sharply and cities like this that are just outside the top 10, and there's a common link with these three and the others that are moving up the rankings. They're an alternative to the bigger cities, and they offer authenticity a slower pace, culturally rich and scenic destinations. So, expect to see more of these in our lists over the coming months and years. From an attraction’s perspective, again, experiential style, attractions are seeing a surge in interest in bookings. 75% of the experiences booked on Trip Advisor during this period by India, users were for cultural landmarks, religious or heritage sites. Travellers are rediscovering their routes through meaningful journeys and experiences within India.
