If you look up Indian tourists on any social media platform, or even do a simple Google search, you will be met with thousands of videos, posts, reports, articles and many other results all talking about how bad they are. Every other day, some video or another is going viral where Indian tourists are making a spectacle of themselves somewhere in the world and not in a good way.
This has also finally reached the government level, where the countries themselves are tightening their visa rules for Indian passport holders. Over the past few days, my Instagram feed has been full of people, many Indians themselves, recording the frankly embarrassing behaviour of other fellow tourists from the same country and how they are just ruining our reputation as travellers in front of foreigners.
From groups of men and women doing garba, whether it be at the Burj Khalifa or the Great Wall of China, to Indian men harassing women in Thailand or Vietnam, there are hundreds of such clips going viral constantly.
Such Indian tourists don’t even spare their own country, with clips showing some dancing shirtless on car roofs in the snows of Himachal Pradesh, or blasting loud music near a river, or in hotel restaurants well into the night.
Now, it has come to notice that they don’t even spend all that much, especially in comparison to visitors from other countries.
How Much Do Indian Tourists Actually Spend?
At this point, Indian tourists have developed a genuinely bad global reputation, and the response from countries they visit is beginning to reflect that. Thailand has scaled back its visa access. Goa is detaining tourists for harassment. A Himalayan village literally banned tourists for 40 days just to get some peace.
This is not to say that it is only Indian travellers who are the sole problem. Every country has its fair share of bad tourists. However, how many countries are outright withdrawing their support for tourists from those regions? Why is it only India that seems to be the target?
That might actually be because India’s outbound traveller is spending far less per trip than tourists from comparable or even smaller economies.
A 2025 UN Tourism report ranked India 10th among the largest outbound tourism sources, where Indian travellers spent around $35 billion on overseas travel in 2024. Now, 35 billion seems like a huge amount in isolation; however, when you look at other countries like China and the US, which topped the list, with their tourists spending a whopping $250.6 billion and $177.8 billion, respectively, the number suddenly looks extremely small.
However, the Reserve Bank data from a May report by The Hindu revealed that “Overseas travel spending by Indians, including holiday trips, declined by $212.43 million to $1.09 billion in March compared to February.” Previously, this figure stood at $1.3 billion in February and $1.65 billion in January. The reason for this decline, though, is being attributed to the ongoing West Asia-US conflict, the rise in oil prices and the downfall of the rupee.
Read More: Why Have Foreigners Stopped Visiting Goa For Vacations?
The Reputation Problem: Why Has It Gotten So Bad?
Let’s be clear: not every Indian tourist abroad behaves badly. The majority travel without incident. But a critical number has been making enough of an impression and generating enough viral footage that the conversation can no longer be avoided.
The situation is also getting concerning with foreign countries actively pulling back support for Indian tourists, in some particular ways. Now, this is not to say that other countries don’t have bad tourists, but when you look at the difference in their expenditure and how much Indian tourists spend, it could be making those countries want to appease the tourists of countries that bring in higher revenue, along with keeping the locals happy.
A 2025 The Quint article also stated, “You might argue that Chinese tourists often top the list of badly-behaved travellers, but the Chinese travel abroad more than four times the amount Indians do. As far as global bad behaviour is concerned, we certainly punch above our weight.”
The list of things that Indian tourists are doing wrong just seems to be ever-increasing, including:
Harassment of women is one of the most frequently cited and filmed infractions. In one widely circulated incident from Pattaya beach, two Indian men made unwanted advances towards Thai women and began filming them without permission. When asked to delete the recording, a verbal confrontation turned physical and resulted in five injuries.
In Goa, police launched a series of detentions of domestic tourists accused of harassing foreign women visitors for photographs and selfies without consent, with some additionally accused of secretly filming them.
Then you have them creating a nuisance in public spaces and showing general civic failure.
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In Himachal Pradesh, a local resident from Manali who once ran a tourist hut said the problem stems from cheap travel packages, lack of tourist education, weak enforcement of rules, and the pressure of social media trends that encourage risky or attention-seeking behaviour.
Before we treat this as purely an international image crisis, it is worth acknowledging that Indian tourists are equally problematic within India’s own tourist destinations.
Countries Are Starting to Push Back
Often, excuses like racism or discrimination are used in such instances. And while not all of them are without some racist or discriminatory undertones, the responsibility of the Indian tourists also cannot and should not be overlooked.
Because, sure, Chinese travellers might have had a bad reputation for a while there; however, countries didn’t seem to have pulled back support on a large scale in retaliation for them. This might have been because of the insane amount of revenue they brought from their tourism.
On the other hand, India is seeing retaliation. Thailand recently removed India from its visa-free entry list, placing Indian passport holders under the Visa on Arrival (VoA) category instead, under revised measures approved by the Thai Cabinet in May 2026. This is due to security briefings that linked longer visa-free windows to an increase in drug trafficking, human trafficking, and illegal business activity operated by foreigners.
This is a bit embarrassing, since between 2023 and 2024, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and Indonesia all extended visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to certain sections of tourists, including Indian travellers, as part of aggressive tourism revival campaigns post-COVID. Vietnam recorded a 231% increase in Indian visitors in 2023 compared to 2019, largely driven by ease of access and budget-friendly airline options.
Here is what the data and the incidents together make plain: you cannot behave badly and spend poorly, and still expect countries to roll out the welcome mat indefinitely.
The countries that have usually welcomed Indian tourists in large numbers have done so for various reasons, ranging from a diplomatic gesture to economic profit, or just genuine hospitality. The economic profit depends on Indian tourists generating real financial value, filling premium hotels, spending at local restaurants and shops, buying experiences, and more.
When you’re travelling on a budget package, staying in the cheapest accommodation you can find, not tipping, bargaining aggressively over every transaction, and then harassing locals to boot, you are not offering a country anything worth the political and social cost of hosting you.
At a minimum, if you are not going to spend significant money in a country, the least you can do is be a gracious, respectful, and considerate guest. The access that Indian passport holders have been given to countries across Southeast Asia, West Asia, and beyond is not guaranteed.
It is the product of bilateral goodwill, diplomatic relationships, and the expectation of mutual benefit.
You cannot be loud, rude, lecherous, and cheap all at once, and then wonder why the doors are slowly closing.
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: The Hindu, The Print, India Today
Find the blogger: @chirali_08
This post is tagged under: civic sense, indian civic sense, indian tourists, Indian Tourists behaviour, Indian Tourists civic sense, Indian Tourists crass, Indian Tourists rude, Indian Tourists stereotype, Indian Tourists viral, Thailand, tourism, indian tourists difficult, indian tourists unpopular
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