PM Modi’s call to stop foreign travel comes as spending in this area has already been falling

At a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged Indians not to travel abroad and give up on foreign weddings for at least a year, official data shows foreign spending by Indian tourists has actually fallen for the last two years. 

In fact, an analysis of data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) shows the real growth in dollars flowing out of the country is coming from high-net-worth individuals (HNIs) investing in movable and immovable foreign assets, rather than from holiday-goers or those getting married in foreign locations.

While addressing a gathering in Secunderabad in Telangana on Sunday (May 10, 2025), Mr. Modi laid out a seven-point list of suggestions to the Indian public to help the Indian economy and government during the ongoing West Asia crisis. 

“The growing culture of weddings abroad, travelling abroad, and vacationing abroad is becoming prevalent among the middle class. We must decide that during this time of crisis, we should postpone travelling abroad for at least a year,” Mr. Modi said as one of his suggestions. 

RBI data on the expenditure under the Liberalised Remittances Scheme (LRS), the only formal pathway under which Indian individuals can spend abroad, shows that a total of $26.4 billion was spent under this scheme in the first 11 months (April 2025 to February 2026) of 2025-26. This is 2.3% lower than what was spent in the same period of 2024-25. 

Of this, spending on foreign travel stood at $15.3 billion, the largest category, but this amount was 3.1% lower in April 2025-February 2026 than in the same period of the previous year, which itself was 1% lower than in April 2024-February 2025. 

Similarly, spending on gifts sent abroad contracted 12.7% and 19.1% in the first 11 months of 2025-26 and 2024-25, respectively. 

On the other hand, investment by Indians in foreign debt and equity surged nearly 59% to $2.2 billion in the April 2025-February 2026 period. For context, this figure was $621 million in the first 11 months of 2021-22. 

Similarly, the amount spent on the purchase of immovable assets abroad jumped more than 76% in the first 11 months of 2025-26, to $490 million. This figure stood at $96.7 million in the same period of 2021-22.