From Aspirational Travel to Localized Leisure: A Middle-Class Tourism Transformation in Remote-Work India

This paper explain the transformation of tourism practices among India’s middle class in the wake of remote work and pandemic-induced disruptions. Drawing on quantitative insights, it introduces the concept of Localized Mobility Reorientation, a process through which aspirational, status-driven travel is reconfigured into nearby, experience-based and emotionally restorative leisure—commonly known as staycations. The theory suggests that this shift is not merely behavioural but structural, reflecting deeper recalibrations in identity, class performance and spatial mobility. Staycations emerge as a hybrid form of leisure that integrates work flexibility, emotional well-being and localized consumption. They serve psychological needs (mental respite, familial bonding), support sustainable economic practices (local tourism revival, frugal spending) and align with nationalist soft-power initiatives like “Dekho Apna Desh.” The study reveals how India’s middle class navigates the dual pressures of professional mobility and socio-cultural rootedness, offering a new lens on domestic tourism in post-pandemic economies. In doing so, it extends the mobility paradigm and contributes to emerging theories of digital-era tourism, middle-class identity and localized leisure economies in the Global South.