India has cracked the world’s top 3 travel destinations for 2025—and investment banker Sarthak Ahuja says what’s happening behind the scenes in hotels, weddings, and luxury chains is even bigger than the ranking.

Citing The Telegraph UK’s 2025 Travel Awards, Ahuja revealed that India ranks just behind New Zealand and Japan as one of the most desirable countries to visit. On LinkedIn, he described the surge as “sudden,” with a ripple effect now reshaping the hospitality sector.

Two Indian hotel brands—Oberoi and Taj—ranked among the top three in the world, alongside Belmond Hotels, owned by the Louis Vuitton group.

India’s rapid ascent is triggering an aggressive expansion. Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL), which owns Taj, has opened 50 properties since January and plans to double its portfolio to 700 hotels by 2030. French giant Accor is on track to triple its presence, aiming for 300 hotels in the same timeframe.

Ahuja said India is crossing the $3,000 per capita GDP mark—a threshold at which countries typically see a hospitality boom. But the supply isn’t there yet: India has just 200,000 branded hotel rooms, roughly the same as the UAE, a country with 1% of India’s population.

He pointed to cities like Siliguri, now a wedding hotspot for families from Bihar and Bengal, where major hotel chains like Taj, ITC, and Hyatt are racing to enter. “People are spending ₹1 crore on weddings and there are literally not enough properties with 100 rooms,” he wrote.

With domestic travelers taking three short trips for every one trip abroad, Ahuja called this “an opportune time” for boutique hotels and Airbnb-style operators to cash in.