(AP photo)NEW DELHI: The UAE remained the leading travel destination for Indian nationals in 2024, followed by Saudi Arabia, the US, Thailand, Singapore, the UK, Qatar, Canada, Kuwait and Oman. Business and professional travel accounted for 14.9% of total departures, while pilgrimage (3.9%), education (2.4%) and other purposes (1.4%) comprised the remaining share. As far as gender distribution is concerned, while females accounted for 34.1% of travellers in 2024, males made up the remaining 65.8%.If one looks at the data on destination countries visited by Indian nationals for the years 2019, 2023 and 2024, all three years saw the UAE ranked first. However, its percentage share declined slightly from 7.2% in 2019 and 7.3% in 2023 to 6.9% in 2024, despite growth in absolute numbers. Travel to Thailand, which held fourth position, witnessed revival in 2024 with 1.9 million departures, as against 1.4 million in 2023.