As PM Modi calls for pause, spend on travel abroad already seen sliding

12 MAY 2026

At a time when PM Narendra Modi has urged Indians not to travel abroad and give up on foreign weddings for at least a year, official data show foreign spending by Indian tourists actually slid in the last two years.
In fact, an analysis of data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) show the real growth in dollar outflow was 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.
Addressing a gathering in Telangana on 10^th May 2026, Mr. Modi gave a seven-point list of suggestions to the Indian public to help the Indian economy and government during the ongoing West Asia crisis.
RBI data on the expenditure under the Liberalised Remittances Scheme, the only formal pathway under which Indians can spend abroad, shows a total of $26.4 billion spent under this scheme in the first 11 months (April 2025 to February 2026) of 2025-26. This was 2.3% lower than what was spent in the same period of 2024-25.
Investment by Indians in foreign debt and equity surged almost 59% to $2.2 billion between April 2025-February 2026.
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 stood at $96.7 million in the same period of 2021-22.