Japan, US, France and Italy emerge as top international leisure destinations of global citizens for 2025
Australia, Japan, and Singapore have emerged as the top international leisure travel destinations for Indian travellers through 2025, according to the Ipsos Market Essentials June 2025 report. In contrast, global citizens favor Japan, the United States, France and Italy as their leading travel choices. The report, centered on leisure travel preferences and motivations, capturing insights from consumers across 15 countries, including India.
The report highlights leisure travel preferences and motivations of Indians and global citizens through 2025.
“Ipsos Market Essentials monitors how people across the globe navigate the new rules of engagement and the resulting impact on our state of mind, state of wallet, and future intentions. Each month Ipsos surveys consumers in 15 countries, including: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, the UK and the US. We share research exploring consumer attitudes, emotions, and behaviours; these are examined in the context of unprecedented challenges related to inflation, sustainability, health and wellness, among others,” stated Allyson Leavy, Senior VP, Market Strategy & Understanding (MSU), Ipsos US.
Archana Gupta, Country Service Line Leader & Executive Director, MSU, Ipsos India said, “A large number of Indian families focus on leisure travel during summer vacations and it has been a ritual to take family or go on a solo break to get away from the intense summer heat or plan a leisurely break, mid-year. The report interestingly captures the frame of mind Indians were in; 63% claimed to have travelled outside their hometown, 57% said they had researched a leisure trip, while 1 in 2 (50%) claimed to have booked a leisure trip. Leisure travel was the preoccupation of citizens.”
The Ipsos Market Essentials Report also placed leisure travellers under key travel segments.
How did Indians stack up vis-à-vis global citizens?
Indians were largely Opportunistic Explorers (24%), Connected Travellers (20%), Comfort Seekers (19%) and Luxury Indulgers (15%). The rest were Adventurous Experience Seekers (13%) and Travel Indifferent (9%).
Global citizens were slightly different from their Indian counterparts in their travel motivations. The key segments in the pecking order were – Opportunist Explorers (26%), Travel Indifferent (20%), Comfort Seekers (18%), Connected Travellers (18%), Adventurous Experience Seekers (9%) and Luxury Indulgers (9%).
“Indians are largely exploring great deals to explore new places, traveling to bond with family, choosing familiar territory and some investing in premium hospitality and experiences,” added Gupta.
Methodology
The sample for this study consists of approximately 1,000 individuals in Canada, France, India, the U.K., and the U.S. and 500 in the other 10 countries. The samples in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, South Korea, the U.K. and the U.S. can be taken as representative of these countries’ general adult population over age 16 or 18 (U.S. and Canada) and under the age of 75.
The sample in Brazil, China, India, Mexico, and South Africa is more urban, more educated and/or more affluent than the general population and should be viewed as reflecting the views of the more “connected” segment of the population. The data is weighted so that each market’s sample composition best reflects the demographic profile of the adult population according to the most recent census data.
Results in this report are not weighted by population size which would be required in order to report a representative world total. Additionally, large parts of the world population are excluded from this study for a variety of reasons. As such, instead of reporting a global or world total, we have used the terminology “Global Country Average;” that is, the mean score of all the countries in the survey.