NEW DELHI: India’s peak outbound journey month of June noticed a decline within the variety of Indian guests to the US in 2025 over the earlier yr for the primary time this millennium, barring the Covid interval.With 2.1 lakh Indians headed to America in June, the quantity was 8% decrease than 2.3 lakh in identical month final yr, based on knowledge from the US commerce deptartmen’s Nationwide Journey and Tourism Workplace (NTTO). The provisional determine for this July reveals a 5.5% fall over the identical month final yr.
Total, the US has been seeing a decline in worldwide guests – and never simply from India – in latest months. NTTO says the whole non-US resident worldwide customer quantity to the US decreased 6.2% in June 2025 over June 2024, 7% in Might, 8% in March, and 1.9% in Feb. This Jan noticed a 4.7% enhance over identical interval final yr, and April was up 1.3%.India is the fourth-largest supply marketplace for worldwide guests for the US. Because the two greatest supply markets – Mexico and Canada – share a land border, India is the second-biggest abroad supply market, with the UK being the most important. “Mixed, these high 5 supply markets (Brazil being the fifth) accounted for 59.4% of complete worldwide arrivals” this June, says NTTO.Whereas journey business biggies right here say it’s too early to pin the blame for the autumn in Indian customer numbers on the stricter visa regime adopted by Donald Trump in his second presidency, the affect may very well be extra pronounced going forward if the identical continues. The explanation: the US principally points 10-year-validity a number of entry customer and enterprise visas (B1/B2) so individuals who have already got them can preserve travelling. But when new visas get impacted for causes like lengthy appointment occasions or stricter issuance norms, then with a time lag affect shall be seen.“We’re seeing a visual affect on the coed phase this yr resulting from delay in visa issuance even after individuals securing school admissions. Traditionally, the most important classes of tourists headed from India to the US have been visiting pals and family members, enterprise and college students. The US was by no means a high leisure vacation spot for Indians. That house has been led by Southeast Asia, the Center East and Europe. North America got here after that. Proper now, aside from college students, we aren’t seeing a dramatic affect on the opposite segments. But when new visa issuances are affected, they will even be hit with a sure time lag,” mentioned a journey agent.With Indian diaspora of over 50 lakh, the US sees nice demand for journey from the US.