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Industry brief · Travel & Tourism

Travel, where our guests build

Two Building Real founders build for travellers. Karthik Srinivasan is building a marketplace for India's motorcycle tours, riding schools and stays, and Claudiu Petria co-founded Questo, an app for story-led city games played on foot. This brief covers what is happening in travel and tourism in India and Romania, and in the global platforms and data that set the pace.

IndiaRomania
Checked 20 Oct 2026 · every figure linked to its source · next review Jan 2027

01At a glance

91.49 lakh

foreign tourist arrivals in India in 2025, down 8.1%1

US$31.7B

India's foreign exchange earnings from tourism in 2025, down 9.5% from US$35.0 billion in 20242

3.3 crore

departures abroad by Indian nationals in 2025, up 6.3% on the previous year3

Departures, not unique travellers
13.9M

arrivals in Romania's tourist accommodation in 2025, down 2.4%. Romanians made up 81.4% of them4

Tourist accommodation, including apartments and rooms for rent
690M

international tourists worldwide in the first half of 2026, up just 0.4%, UN Tourism estimates5

An estimate for six months, worldwide, not for India or Romania

02Demand in India and Romania

India: fewer foreign visitors, travel at home holds the market

Phocuswright says India's travel market grew just 1% to $41.7 billion in 20256.

The Ministry of Tourism counted 428.7 crore domestic tourist visits in India in 2025, up 45.5% from 294.5 crore in 2024. The Ministry notes that the total includes visits during the 2025 Kumbh Mela, and Uttar Pradesh alone accounted for 155.7 crore7.

WTTC estimates that domestic visitors spent $203 billion in India in 2025, 86% of all Travel & Tourism spending; international visitors account for around 14%8.

A visit is counted in each state a traveller goes to, so the Ministry's total is not a count of people. Phocuswright sizes the travel market, WTTC models spending across the economy and the Ministry counts visits: they measure different things and are not compared here.

Romania: a soft 2025, a flat start to 2026

EU tourism set a record in 2025 with nearly 3.1 billion nights spent in tourist accommodation (up 2.2%), while Romania was one of three countries where nights fell (down 1.7%)9.

Wall-Street.ro reported that INS data show Romania's tourist accommodation recorded about 9.76 million arrivals in January-August 2026, up 0.7% on a year earlier, after August brought about 2.27 million arrivals and 5.64 million overnight stays. Romanian tourists generated about 7.91 million of the arrivals10.

Holiday-voucher payments to Romanian tourism businesses fell 48.95% in January-August 2026, to 518.5 million lei from 1,015.7 million lei a year earlier, according to Ministry of Finance data compiled by travel agencies' association ANAT11.

The full-year 2025 figures and the January-August 2026 figures come from different releases and periods, and are not read as a recovery. Accommodation counts include apartments and rooms for rent.

Worldwide: growth is slowing

UN Tourism estimates that 1.52 billion international tourists travelled in 2025, up 4%, with preliminary estimates pointing to about USD 1.9 trillion in international tourism receipts12.

An estimated 690 million international tourists travelled in the first half of 2026, up just 0.4%, and UN Tourism now forecasts 1% to 2% growth for 2026. Europe (+3%) was among the strongest regions5.

UN Tourism's figure for 2026 as a whole is a forecast, made in September 2026.

03How AI and online booking are changing it

U.S. travelers are already using AI

U.S. travelers who used AI on at least one trip

First half of 2025
33%
Second half of 2025
43%
Past 12 months, early 2026
56%

56% of U.S. travelers used AI for planning, booking or in-destination help on at least one trip in the past 12 months, up from 43% in the second half of 2025 and 33% in the first half13.

This is U.S. research on travel in general. None of the research we checked measures AI use in trip planning for India or Romania.

Platforms and operators are building AI in

A Google integration makes Viator's catalogue of tours, activities and attractions bookable directly inside the Gemini AI chat interface, currently for U.S. users14.

In India, MakeMyTrip's group CEO Rajesh Magow said on the company's April-June 2026 earnings call that its AI assistant Myra handled over 8 million conversations in the quarter, including more than 3 million in June alone15.

Arival reported in June 2026 that 76% of operators already use AI to write product listings, while 44% say AI has given them inaccurate or misleading information16. Arival's 2026 Experiences Traveler study found 53% of travelers use AI for destination research and 33% use it specifically to discover things to do17.

Arival does not state the geography or sample behind these operator and traveler figures, so they are not read as describing India or Romania. MakeMyTrip's figure is the company's own statement.

Experiences are still booked mostly offline

Share of experiences bookings made online, worldwide

2019
17%
2025
33%
2029 (projected)
42%

Only 33% of experiences bookings were made online in 2025, against 64% for travel overall. The online share is projected to rise from 17% in 2019 to 42% by 2029, with online travel agencies the fastest-growing channel18.

Just 13% of U.S. and European travelers report taking a self-guided tour via a mobile app in the past year, a share that has changed little since Arival began tracking it19.

The 2029 figure is a projection by Phocuswright and Arival. The self-guided figure covers U.S. and European travelers, not India or Romania.

04Where the money is moving

The experiences category

$271B

in gross bookings for tours, activities and attractions worldwide in 2025, projected to exceed $340 billion by 2029. That is an 8% nominal annual growth rate from 2023 to 2029, against 5% for travel overall20.

This is the whole global category, measured in gross bookings, and the 2029 figure is a projection.

The platforms

  • MakeMyTrip. The company said its gross bookings rose 10.4% in constant currency to $10,390.8 million in the year to March 2026 (FY26), on revenue of $1,044.0 million, with hotels and packages adjusted margin up 15.7% in constant currency to $476.8 million21.
  • Viator. Tripadvisor's Experiences segment (Viator) grew second-quarter 2026 revenue 3% to $278.6 million, with gross bookings value of about $1.4 billion (up about 3%) and about 6.5 million experience bookings (up about 5%)22.
  • GetYourGuide. Skift reported in August 2026 that GetYourGuide had its first-ever profitable year in 2025 on an adjusted basis, with over EUR 1 billion in revenue and more than EUR 4 billion in gross merchandise value; no profit figure was disclosed23.
  • Klook. It filed in November 2025 to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker KLK; its filing showed gross transaction value up 36% to $2.5 billion in 2024 and revenue of $417.1 million24.
  • WanderOn, India. The experiential travel company raised INR 54 crore in a Series A co-led by DSG Consumer Partners and CAAF, to build adventure, sports-led and wellness travel25.
Each company defines its own measures, so the figures cannot be compared with each other or read as shares of the category. MakeMyTrip's and Tripadvisor's figures cover different periods. GetYourGuide is private and disclosed no profit figure. Klook has filed to list, and had not listed when we checked.

05What governments are doing

  1. EU, including Romania. EU member states decided in December 2024 to remove checks on persons at the internal land borders with and between Bulgaria and Romania from 1 January 2025, after checks at internal air and sea borders had been abolished from 31 March 202426.
  2. Romania. Romania's standard VAT rate rose from 19% to 21% on 1 August 2025, and its 5% and 9% reduced rates were consolidated into a single 11% rate that covers hotel accommodation and restaurant services, according to tax-compliance firm Avalara27.
  3. India. India cut GST on hotel accommodation priced at up to Rs 7,500 per unit per day from 12% to 5%, effective 22 September 202528. On the same day, it cut GST on motorcycles up to 350cc from 28% to 18% and raised it on motorcycles above 350cc from 28% to 40%29.
  4. India. The Union Budget 2026-27, presented on 1 February 2026, proposed ecologically sustainable mountain trails in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir, plus Araku Valley in the Eastern Ghats and Podhigai Malai in the Western Ghats30. It also proposed a pilot scheme to upskill 10,000 guides across 20 iconic tourist sites through a 12-week hybrid training programme run with an Indian Institute of Management31. Both are proposals, not allocations.
  5. India. The Ministry of Tourism told the Rajya Sabha in February 2026 that it had sanctioned 53 projects worth Rs 2,208.31 crore under Swadesh Darshan 2.0, 38 projects worth Rs 697.94 crore under Challenge Based Destination Development, and 54 projects worth Rs 1,726.74 crore under PRASHAD32. These are sanctioned project values, not spending.
  6. EU, including Romania. The Council of the EU gave final approval to the revised Package Travel Directive on 30 March 2026. Linked travel arrangements are excluded from its scope, organisers must refund travellers who cancel because of force majeure within 14 days, and vouchers offered instead of refunds must be of equal or greater value than the original trip, valid for 12 months and transferable once33.
  7. Ladakh, India. In May 2026 the Ladakh administration signed a three-year agreement with Royal Enfield and the Ladakh Bike Co-operative to make Ladakh Bike Week, planned for 1 to 7 September each year, a flagship tourism event34.
  8. EU, including Romania. The amendments to the Package Travel Directive entered into force on 28 May 2026. Member states have 28 months to transpose them, and they become binding on operators six months later. Vouchers offered instead of refunds will need the traveller's express consent, with an automatic refund if a voucher is not redeemed35. Until then, operators are not yet bound by the new rules.
  9. Ladakh, India. Ladakh's Lieutenant Governor flagged off the first Ladakh Bike Week on 1 September 2026, organised by the Department of Tourism, UT Ladakh, to promote the region for motorcycling and high-altitude adventure tourism. Its Himalayan Base Camp at Chuchot (4 to 6 September) was expected to attract around 5,500 visitors a day36. That was an expectation, not a count.

06Trends to watch

Fewer foreign visitors to India, more Indians going abroad

Foreign tourist arrivals in India fell 8.1% in 20251, and foreign exchange earnings from tourism fell 9.5%2. Departures abroad by Indian nationals rose 6.3% in the same year3.

Home travellers carry both markets

WTTC estimates that domestic visitors made up 86% of all Travel & Tourism spending in India in 20258. In Romania, Romanians made up 81.4% of arrivals in tourist accommodation in 20254.

A slower year for travel

India's travel market grew just 1% in 20256, and Romania was one of three EU countries where tourism nights fell in a record year for the EU9. Worldwide, international arrivals rose just 0.4% in the first half of 2026, and UN Tourism now forecasts 1% to 2% growth for 20265.

AI is becoming a way to plan and book

56% of U.S. travelers used AI on at least one trip in the past 12 months13. Viator's catalogue is bookable inside Google's Gemini chat, currently for U.S. users14. In India, MakeMyTrip says its assistant Myra handled over 8 million conversations in the April-June 2026 quarter15.

Ladakh is building tourism around motorcycling

The Ladakh administration signed a three-year agreement with Royal Enfield and a local bike co-operative to make Ladakh Bike Week a flagship tourism event34, and the first edition was flagged off on 1 September 202636. Officials said Ladakh received 4,60,667 tourists between 1 January and 30 September 2026, against 3,35,872 in the whole of 202537. Those counts cover all tourists, not riders.

07The problems our guests are solving

No website existed for his Ladakh ride. So he's building the marketplace
India

EP08Karthik Srinivasan · Everything Motorcycling

No website existed for his Ladakh ride. So he's building the marketplace

In the episode, Karthik explains that when he tried to book a ride to Ladakh, he ended up on twenty websites: the tours, schools and stays he wanted lived in Instagram messages and "DM for price" posts. He describes Everything Motorcycling as a commission-based marketplace for tours, riding schools, moto-stays, festivals and races, with software that India's riding businesses can use to run their bookings.

4,60,667

tourists visited Ladakh between 1 January and 30 September 2026, officials said, against 3,35,872 visitors in the whole of 202537.

These are all tourists, not riders: none of the sources we checked counts motorcycle tourists in Ladakh or sizes motorcycle tourism in India. Ladakh officials' counts are a different series from the Ministry of Tourism's and are not compared with it.
Watch the episode →
Claudiu Petria on Building Real
Romania

EP14Claudiu Petria · Questo

By his account, Questo got more than a million people playing across 1,000+ cities, with 35,000 local creators writing the quests38. In the episode, Claudiu describes games written by local creators on Questo's own platform, in which players find statues, plaques and details on the street, solve clues and unlock stories.

$271B

in gross bookings for tours, activities and attractions worldwide in 2025, the whole category that experiences such as city games belong to20.

That is the entire global category, not Questo's market: none of the sources we checked measures city games on their own. Questo's figures are Claudiu's own account and were not independently verified.
Watch the episode →

See how these conversations connect on the Discovery Atlas →

08Sources

One research agent gathered 40 figures from government, regulator and established data sources. A separate red-team agent then reopened every source, checked each number, its scope and its date, and looked for newer or conflicting data. It kept 32 figures as written, corrected 8 and cut 0. Each figure above links to its source below, with the date it refers to.

  1. Ministry of Tourism, Government of India: India Tourism Statistics 2026, 67th ed. (Sep 2026) · 2025 calendar year
  2. Ministry of Tourism, Government of India: India Tourism Statistics 2026, 67th ed. (Sep 2026) · 2025 calendar year
  3. Ministry of Tourism, Government of India: India Tourism Statistics 2026, 67th ed. (Sep 2026) · 2025 calendar year
  4. AGERPRES, 6 Feb 2026, reporting National Institute of Statistics (INS) data · 2025 calendar year
  5. UN Tourism, World Tourism Barometer Vol. 24, Issue 3 (Sep 2026) · January-June 2026; forecast as of Sep 2026
  6. Phocuswright, India Travel Market Essentials 2026 (Aug 2026) · 2025 calendar year
  7. Ministry of Tourism, Government of India: India Tourism Statistics 2026, 67th ed. (Sep 2026) · 2025 calendar year
  8. World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), news release, 27 Jul 2026 · 2025 (WTTC modelled estimate)
  9. Eurostat news, 4 Mar 2026 · 2025 calendar year
  10. Wall-Street.ro, 8 Oct 2026, reporting INS data (BIBI Touroperator analysis) · January-August 2026
  11. Wall-Street.ro, 11 Oct 2026, reporting Ministry of Finance data compiled by ANAT · January-August 2026 vs January-August 2025
  12. UN Tourism, news release, 20 Jan 2026 · 2025 (preliminary, released 20 Jan 2026)
  13. Phocuswright, research update, Mar 2026 · 12 months to early 2026 (published Mar 2026)
  14. Arival, 5 Aug 2026 · Aug 2026
  15. MarketBeat, transcript of MakeMyTrip's Q1 FY2027 earnings call (4 Aug 2026) · Q1 FY27 (Apr-Jun 2026; call of 4 Aug 2026)
  16. Arival, 16 Jun 2026 (article on GetYourGuide's 'AI That Works' report) · Jun 2026
  17. Arival, 16 Jun 2026, citing Arival's 2026 Experiences Traveler study · 2026
  18. Phocuswright, research update on The Outlook for Travel Experiences 2019-2029 (with Arival), Feb 2026 · 2025 actual; 2029 projection (published Feb 2026)
  19. Arival, 4 Aug 2026, from the forthcoming The 2026 Day Tour Taker · Past 12 months (Arival 2026 study, published 4 Aug 2026)
  20. Phocuswright, research update on The Outlook for Travel Experiences 2019-2029 (with Arival), Feb 2026 · 2025 actual; 2029 projection (published Feb 2026)
  21. MakeMyTrip Ltd, Q4/FY2026 earnings release, Form 6-K Exhibit 99.1 (19 May 2026) · FY26 (year ended 31 Mar 2026; unaudited)
  22. Tripadvisor, Q2 2026 earnings release, SEC Exhibit 99.1 (6 Aug 2026) · Q2 2026 (quarter ended 30 Jun 2026)
  23. Skift, 10 Aug 2026 · FY2025 (reported Aug 2026)
  24. Skift, 10 Nov 2025 · Filing of 10 Nov 2025 (2024 financials)
  25. Entrepreneur India, 20 Jan 2026 · 20 Jan 2026
  26. Council of the EU, press release, 12 Dec 2024 · Land borders from 1 Jan 2025; air and sea from 31 Mar 2024
  27. Avalara (tax-compliance firm), blog, 28 Jul 2025 · Effective 1 Aug 2025 (rates current in Oct 2026)
  28. Ministry of Finance via PIB: Recommendations of the 56th GST Council meeting (3 Sep 2025) · Effective 22 Sep 2025
  29. Ministry of Finance via PIB: Recommendations of the 56th GST Council meeting (3 Sep 2025) · Effective 22 Sep 2025
  30. TTG Asia, 6 Feb 2026 · Budget 2026-27 (presented 1 Feb 2026)
  31. TTG Asia, 6 Feb 2026 · Budget 2026-27 (presented 1 Feb 2026)
  32. Ministry of Tourism, reply to Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question No. 1574 (12 Feb 2026) · Cumulative to 12 Feb 2026
  33. Council of the EU, press release, 30 Mar 2026 · Adopted 30 Mar 2026
  34. Indus Dispatch, 16 May 2026 · MoU signed May 2026
  35. European Commission, news item, 28 May 2026 · In force 28 May 2026
  36. Daily Excelsior, 2 Sep 2026 · 1-7 Sep 2026 (expected footfall)
  37. UNI (United News of India), 12 Oct 2026 · 1 Jan-30 Sep 2026 (reported 12 Oct 2026)
  38. Building Real EP14, Claudiu Petria (guest's own account) · Guest's account, recorded Aug 2026; not independently verified