$596 million spent by Indians on foreign travel in June 2019, highest since 2004

Spending on foreign travel was at $596 million in June 2019, which was 42% of the total forex purchased by Indian individuals in the month, according to Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which started collating data under the liberalised remittance scheme since 2004. It has been the highest spent on travel since then and was $381 million, accounting for 37% in June 2018. In the first quarter of FY19, international travel cost the country $1,594 million of the total $4,181 million in forex purchased by individuals between April and June 2019. In April-June 2018, travel was $1 billion out of a total spend of $3 billion. After travel, the next thing that Indians spent foreign exchange was education at 25%.