Over 50 per cent of Indians are using cards — credit, debit and prepaid — as their primary payment instrument on foreign travels, even as a large number of tourists also carry foreign exchange as a backup.

USA, Canada and Europe accounts for the highest digital transactions (higher card payments). The US dollar, Euro, UAE Dirham, British Pound and Singapore Dollar are the top 5 international currencies — contributing to 61 per cent of all spends by Indians.

These were some of the interesting findings of a survey on ‘Cross-border Travel Insights for India’ conducted by neo-banking enterprise NiYO in the run-up to World Tourism Day on September 27. The report is based on insights from 25,000 respondents who used the NiYO global card on their foreign trips in the last one year. These majorly include business, leisure and student travellers belonging to Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune and Hyderabad.