We have announced the release of our ‘Travel Recap 2025’, highlighting key travel trends observed during the year. With continued travel momentum witnessed over the past two years, the data shows sustained growth across spiritual, cultural, leisure and spontaneous travel categories, reflecting rising aspiration and a renewed appetite for travel among Indians.
Spiritual travel continued to accelerate in 2025 emerging as one of the strongest growth drivers on the Paytm platform. The Kumbh Mela topped travel trends, with bookings to Prayagraj rising over threefold in January and February. This was significantly higher than the steady pilgrimage growth recorded in 2024 when destinations such as Ayodhya, Shirdi and Varanasi saw nearly 50 percent year-on-year growth. In 2025, searches for Ayodhya, Varanasi and Tirupati rose 34%, turning these cities into preferred pilgrimage destinations and reinforcing India’s growing inclination toward spiritual travel. This momentum highlights a broader trend of pilgrimage travel observed consistently on our platform.
Festival-led demand once again strengthened in 2025, reinforcing patterns consistently observed in previous years. During Chhath Puja 2025, flights to Patna witnessed a 25 percent spike reflecting one of the country’s largest annual homecomings at scale. This builds on similar festival-led peaks seen in 2024 when bus and train bookings rose sharply around Chhath Puja and Holi weekends, highlighting how cultural calendars continue to shape travel behaviour.
Consumer behaviour in 2025 also highlighted a decisive shift towards spontaneity. Bookings rose 15 percent immediately after salary credits reflecting a clear linkage between disposable income and travel decisions.
Entertainment driven travel emerged as an even stronger catalyst in 2025. Concert-led trips drove higher travel demand to Mumbai and Bengaluru extending a trend first seen in 2024 when travel for concerts recorded over 40 percent growth. Live events are increasingly influencing short duration travel decisions, particularly among younger travellers.
Leisure destinations continued to perform strongly. Srinagar witnessed record bookings, making it our platform’s most notable comeback story of the year. Goa remained in peak mode through the year, registering higher traveller volumes than 2024 and reaffirming its position as India’s prime leisure destination.
Importantly, 2025 saw increased travel to regional India, signalling stronger momentum beyond metros. Tier 2 cities such as Indore, Lucknow, Patna, Surat and Kochi saw a meaningful increase in inbound travel volumes. The continued expansion of travel demand beyond metros reflects rising aspiration and deeper digital adoption across emerging urban centres.
“Travel trends in 2025 reinforce patterns that have been steadily strengthening over recent years. From the continued rise of spiritual and festival-led travel to greater spontaneity, event-driven trips and growing demand from Tier-2 cities, users continue to place their trust in Paytm Travel. We remain focused on building a seamless, reliable and scalable travel ecosystem that supports India’s evolving mobility needs,” said Paytm Spokesperson.
Earlier this year, we launched Paytm Checkin, our AI-powered travel app that brings personalised recommendations and conversational booking across flights, trains, buses and metro onto a single, seamless platform.
As India’s preferred platform for flight, train and bus bookings, Paytm Checkin offers flexible payment options, zero convenience fee, low-cost flight cancellation at ₹99, with fast, frictionless refunds, enabling millions of Indians to travel with greater confidence, convenience and control. The platform further adds value through its Travel Pass priced at ₹249, which unlocks additional benefits, including travel insurance and free cancellations.
Backed by real-time flight updates, Ticket Assure for trains and Paytm Assured for buses, Paytm Checkin strengthens reliability, transparency and ease across the entire travel booking experience reinforcing our focus on building a trusted, scalable travel ecosystem for India.
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