Indiana Tourism Statistics Updated November 2026

Human Written & Fact Checked · Updated

133 Indiana Tourism Statistics for 2026

Indiana had a record 83.3 million visitors in 2024, and they spent $16.9 billion in the state. Most of those visits were day trips, and fewer than one in a hundred came from abroad.

This page gathers the current official figures on Indiana tourism in one place: visitor numbers and spending, the 2026 trend, jobs and taxes, hotels and counties, airports and rail, national and state parks, events, weather and safety. Every number links to the body that published it, with the date.

The state totals come from the annual study that Rockport Analytics produces for the Indiana Destination Development Corporation (IDDC), the state tourism office. The 2024 study, published in December 2025, is the latest; the 2025 study is not out yet. Figures that measure different things, such as tourism-supported jobs and leisure and hospitality payroll jobs, are kept apart.

Headline figures

  • Indiana had a record 83.3 million visitors in 2024, up 1.9% on 2023 and above the 2019 high. (IDDC / Rockport Analytics (2024 study), Dec 2025)
  • Visitors spent $16.9 billion in Indiana in 2024, up 4.7%. (IDDC / Rockport Analytics (2024 study), Dec 2025)
  • Tourism added $10.9 billion to Indiana's gross state product in 2024, 2.1% of the state economy. (IDDC / Rockport Analytics (2024 study), Dec 2025)
  • Tourism supported 210,223 jobs in Indiana in 2024, about 1 in 20 of all non-farm jobs. (IDDC / Rockport Analytics (2024 study), Dec 2025)
  • Visitor activity generated $3.2 billion in federal, state and local taxes in 2024. (IDDC / Rockport Analytics (2024 study), Dec 2025)
  • Indiana leisure and hospitality employment averaged 312,000 jobs in 2025, down from 313,700 in 2024. (BLS, Nov 2026)
  • Indianapolis International Airport handled a record 10,616,093 passengers in 2025, up 0.9% on 2024. (Indianapolis Airport Authority, 2026)
  • South Bend International Airport passed one million passengers for the first time in 2025, with 1,111,002. (South Bend International Airport, Feb 2026)
  • The South Shore Line, the railway from Chicago to the Indiana Dunes and South Bend, carried 2,097,424 trips in 2025, up 18.5%. (NICTD, Jan 2026)
  • Indiana Dunes National Park had 2,629,497 recreation visits in 2025. (National Park Service, 2026)
  • Indiana's state parks and reservoirs had an estimated 18,240,431 visits in the 2024/25 fiscal year. (Indiana DNR, Mar 2026)
  • Marion County (Indianapolis) collected $74.21 million of innkeeper's (hotel) tax in 2025, down from a record $78.40 million in 2024. (Indiana Department of Revenue, Jan 2026)
  • The Indianapolis Motor Speedway brought $972 million of economic impact to Indiana between June 2022 and May 2023, an Indiana University study found. (IU Public Policy Institute, Oct 2023)
  • The 2025 Indiana State Fair drew 854,977 fairgoers over 15 days. (Indiana State Fair Commission, Aug 2025)

How many people visit Indiana each year?

Visitor numbers took four years to get back above the 2019 level. The count fell by a fifth in 2020, recovered most of the way in 2021 and passed the old high only in 2024.

77.2m 2015 78.9m 2016 80.0m 2017 81.0m 2018 82.7m 2019 66.7m 2020 77.3m 2021 80.8m 2022 81.7m 2023 83.3m 2024
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Visitors to Indiana a year, 2015 to 2024, in millions of trips. The 2019 level was passed only in 2024.
PeriodValue
201577.2m
201678.9m
201780.0m
201881.0m
201982.7m
202066.7m
202177.3m
202280.8m
202381.7m
202483.3m
Visitors to Indiana a year, 2015 to 2024, in millions of trips. The 2019 level was passed only in 2024. (IDDC / Rockport Analytics (2024 study), Dec 2025)

A visitor is anyone on an overnight stay or a day trip of 50 miles or more one way, and Indiana residents count. The figures are trips, so one person can be counted many times. Each year in the list is from that year's own study; the chart uses the back series in the 2024 study, which can differ slightly from earlier releases after revisions. The 2020 study was posted as a draft.

What kind of trips do visitors make to Indiana?

Most visits to Indiana are day trips, and most are for leisure. Business travel grew much faster than leisure in 2024, and visitors from abroad make well under one trip in a hundred.

  • Day trips 63%
  • Overnight stays 37%
Day trips and overnight stays as a share of visits to Indiana in 2024. Nearly two visits in three are day trips. (IDDC / Rockport Analytics (2024 study), Dec 2025)

Business travel includes conventions and meetings. Trip purpose is what visitors reported, and some convention visitors describe their trip as leisure. Visitors from abroad include Canada and Mexico as well as overseas markets. The federal count of overseas visitors to Indiana could not be read at source, so it is not used.

How much do visitors spend in Indiana?

Visitor spending has risen every year since the pandemic and is well above the 2019 level in cash terms. Food and drink take the largest share of the budget, ahead of shopping.

  1. 1 Food and drink $4.7bn27.6%
  2. 2 Shopping $3.8bn22.6%
  3. 3 Entertainment and recreation $2.9bn17.2%
  4. 4 Ground transport $2.8bn16.5%
  5. 5 Lodging $2.5bn14.8%
  6. 6 Air travel $216m1%
What visitors spent their money on in Indiana in 2024. Food and drink is the largest item, and air fares the smallest. (IDDC / Rockport Analytics (2024 study), Dec 2025)

Spending is direct visitor spending, not total economic impact. Amounts are in dollars of each year unless marked as adjusted for inflation. Each year is from that year's own study; the 2024 study revised some earlier years slightly, including the 2021 growth rate. The 2024 study also revised the 2023 spending by visitors from abroad down sharply, so only the 2024 vintage is given for that measure.

How is Indiana tourism doing in 2026?

Indiana tourism is roughly level with 2025 so far. Indianapolis airport traffic and Indiana Dunes visits are just below last year, Fort Wayne's airport is up a little, and leisure and hospitality jobs are down on a year earlier. No state visitor count for 2025 or 2026 has been published yet.

713k Jan 720k Feb 978k Mar 870k Apr 935k May 975k Jun 989k Jul 824k Aug 831k Sep
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Passengers at Indianapolis International Airport by month, January to September 2026. Spring break and summer are the busy months.
PeriodValue
Jan713k
Feb720k
Mar978k
Apr870k
May935k
Jun975k
Jul989k
Aug824k
Sep831k
Passengers at Indianapolis International Airport by month, January to September 2026. Spring break and summer are the busy months. (Indianapolis Airport Authority, Sep 2026)
  • Indianapolis International Airport handled 7,835,279 passengers from January to September 2026, down 0.5% on the same months of 2025. (Indianapolis Airport Authority, Sep 2026)
  • September 2026 brought 831,048 passengers to the airport, against 836,829 in September 2025. (Indianapolis Airport Authority, Sep 2026)
  • July was the airport's busiest month of 2026 so far, with 989,264 passengers, and January the quietest, with 713,057. (Indianapolis Airport Authority, Sep 2026)
  • Indiana Dunes National Park had 2,376,448 recreation visits from January to October 2026, against 2,393,936 in the same months of 2025. (National Park Service, Nov 2026)
  • July 2026 brought 507,815 visits to the park, its busiest month in the 2024-2026 data. (National Park Service, Nov 2026)
  • Fort Wayne International Airport handled 676,212 passengers from January to August 2026, up 1.8% on 664,125 a year earlier. (Fort Wayne International Airport, Aug 2026)
  • Leisure and hospitality employment in Indiana was 300,200 in September 2026 (seasonally adjusted, preliminary); the unadjusted count of 304,600 was about 3.4% below September 2025. (BLS, Sep 2026)

The 2026 figures are provisional. Monthly airport totals add the airport's tables of arriving and departing passengers. Airport passengers include residents and people changing planes, so they are not a count of visitors. The BLS figure counts jobs by industry, which serve residents as well as visitors.

What is tourism worth to Indiana's economy?

Tourism is a mid-sized part of Indiana's economy, and it now supports more jobs than before the pandemic. Restaurants and bars account for about a third of those jobs, many of them part-time.

203.9k 2018 208.6k 2019 148.7k 2020 178.9k 2021 200.4k 2022 208.6k 2023 210.2k 2024
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Jobs supported by tourism in Indiana, 2018 to 2024, from each year's study. The 2019 level was passed in 2024.
PeriodValue
2018203.9k
2019208.6k
2020148.7k
2021178.9k
2022200.4k
2023208.6k
2024210.2k
Jobs supported by tourism in Indiana, 2018 to 2024, from each year's study. The 2019 level was passed in 2024. (IDDC / Rockport Analytics (2024 study), Dec 2025)

Tourism-supported jobs are full- and part-time and include indirect and induced jobs, from an economic model run by Rockport Analytics for IDDC. The contribution to gross state product is total value added, ripple effects included, not direct value added. The BLS count is payroll jobs in leisure and hospitality by place of work, which serve residents and visitors alike, so it is not compared with the tourism-supported total.

How much tax does tourism raise in Indiana?

Tourism tax receipts have grown every year since 2020 and are well above the pre-pandemic level. Sales tax brings in most of the state's share, and hotel tax a quarter of the local share.

$2.6bn 2018 $2.7bn 2019 $1.9bn 2020 $2.4bn 2021 $2.8bn 2022 $3.0bn 2023 $3.2bn 2024
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Federal, state and local taxes generated by tourism in Indiana, 2018 to 2024, from each year's study.
PeriodValue
2018$2.6bn
2019$2.7bn
2020$1.9bn
2021$2.4bn
2022$2.8bn
2023$3.0bn
2024$3.2bn
Federal, state and local taxes generated by tourism in Indiana, 2018 to 2024, from each year's study. (IDDC / Rockport Analytics (2024 study), Dec 2025)

Tourism tax figures are modelled by Rockport Analytics from visitor spending, not taken from government accounts. The study takes the hotel tax figure from a state handbook and warns that it may differ from what county treasurers collected. Actual innkeeper's tax collections are in the hotels and counties sections below. The household figure is the consultant's illustration.

How busy are Indianapolis hotels?

There is no free official series of hotel occupancy or room rates for Indianapolis, so the best public measure of hotel business is the county innkeeper's tax. In Indianapolis it fell in 2025 after a record 2024, and more than 1,300 new rooms are due by 2028.

$60.18m 2019 $27.66m 2020 $43.25m 2021 $65.36m 2022 $70.62m 2023 $78.40m 2024 $74.21m 2025
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Innkeeper's tax collected in Marion County (Indianapolis) a year, 2019 to 2025. Collections passed the 2019 level in 2022 and peaked in 2024.
PeriodValue
2019$60.18m
2020$27.66m
2021$43.25m
2022$65.36m
2023$70.62m
2024$78.40m
2025$74.21m
Innkeeper's tax collected in Marion County (Indianapolis) a year, 2019 to 2025. Collections passed the 2019 level in 2022 and peaked in 2024. (Indiana Department of Revenue, Jan 2026)
  • Marion County collected $78.40 million of innkeeper's tax in 2024, the highest of the seven years from 2019 to 2025. (Indiana Department of Revenue, 2025)
  • Collections in Marion County fell to $27.66 million in 2020. (Indiana Department of Revenue, 2021)
  • The Department of Revenue collected $113.8 million of county innkeeper's tax in 2025, in the counties where it collects the tax plus money from booking platforms for all counties; Marion County alone was 65% of it. (Indiana Department of Revenue, Jan 2026)
  • Allen County (Fort Wayne) collected $9.09 million of innkeeper's tax in 2025, up from $6.62 million in 2019. (Indiana Department of Revenue, Jan 2026)
  • Visit Indy counted more than 932,000 convention-related hotel room nights in Indianapolis in 2024. (Visit Indy, 2025)
  • New hotels in Indianapolis include the 803-room Signia by Hilton, linked to the Indiana Convention Center and due in December 2026, a 130-room Kimpton and a 253-room Westin at the airport in 2027, and a 176-room Ritz-Carlton in 2028; a 170-room InterContinental opened in spring 2025. (Visit Indy, 2026)

Innkeeper's tax figures are actual collections by month of collection, excluding penalties and interest, read from each year's Department of Revenue report. Each county sets its own rate, and rates can change, so a rise in collections can come from a higher rate as well as more hotel stays. The convention room nights are those Visit Indy counts as convention-related, not all hotel demand. Opening dates for new hotels are planned dates.

Which parts of Indiana get the most visitor spending?

Visitor spending in the Indianapolis area grew faster than in the rest of the state in 2024. Outside the capital, the suburbs of Hamilton County, Lake County near Chicago, Fort Wayne and the university towns of Lafayette and Bloomington are among the largest.

  1. 1 Hamilton $14.47m
  2. 2 St. Joseph $9.03m
  3. 3 Vanderburgh $6.15m
  4. 4 Lake $5.09m
  5. 5 Hendricks $4.75m
  6. 6 Tippecanoe $4.57m
  7. 7 Monroe $4.15m
  8. 8 Elkhart $3.96m
Innkeeper's tax collected in 2025 by the largest self-collecting counties. Marion and Allen counties are collected by the state and shown in the hotels section. (Indiana Department of Revenue, 2026)
  • Visitor spending in the Indianapolis metro area grew 7.9% in 2024, against 4.3% for all counties. (Rockport Analytics for IDDC (Monroe County), Jan 2026)
  • Tippecanoe County (Lafayette and West Lafayette) visitors spent $630.7 million in 2024, up 0.6%, seventh of Indiana's 92 counties. (Rockport Analytics for IDDC (Tippecanoe County), Jan 2026)
  • Monroe County (Bloomington) visitor spending fell 2.2% to $498.1 million in 2024, eighth of 92 counties by spending but 87th for growth; it supported 7,303 jobs. (Rockport Analytics for IDDC (Monroe County), Jan 2026)
  • Clark and Floyd counties, across the Ohio River from Louisville, drew nearly $559 million of visitor sales in 2024, supporting 7,370 jobs and $181.3 million in wages. (SoIN Tourism, Mar 2026)
  • Visitor spending in Elkhart County grew 6.4% in 2024, and its total ranked 11th of 92 counties. (Visit Elkhart County, Feb 2026)
  • Hendricks County, west of Indianapolis, had $370.3 million of visitor spending in 2023, up 5%, supporting 4,840 jobs. (Visit Hendricks County, Mar 2025)
  • Allen County (Fort Wayne) had 8.8 million visitors who spent $995 million in 2022, third of 92 counties. (Visit Fort Wayne, Feb 2024)
  • Lake County ranked second in Indiana for visitor spending in 2022, at $1.2 billion. (South Shore CVA, Oct 2024)
  • Hamilton County Tourism says visitor spending in the county (Carmel, Fishers, Noblesville and Westfield) passed $1 billion a year by 2024, up from $389 million in 2015. (Hamilton County Tourism, Jun 2025)
  • Counties that collect their own innkeeper's tax reported $85.2 million in 2025, led by Hamilton County ($14.47 million) and St. Joseph County, home to South Bend ($9.03 million). (Indiana Department of Revenue, 2026)
  • Hamilton County collected $8.03 million of innkeeper's tax in 2023 and $13.69 million in 2024. (Indiana Department of Revenue, 2025)

County spending figures come from separate Rockport Analytics studies for IDDC, reported by each county's tourism office, and cover different years (2022, 2023 or 2024), so they are not added up or ranked against each other. The Lake County figure is its tourism office's restatement of the state study. The Hamilton County figure is from a tourism office brochure published before the 2024 county results. Innkeeper's tax rates differ by county and can change, so collections are only a rough guide to hotel business. The self-collecting county totals include booking-platform money passed on by the state, so they are not added to the state total.

How many passengers fly into Indiana?

Indianapolis International handles most of Indiana's air passengers, and it passed 10 million a year for the first time in 2024. The smaller airports at Fort Wayne and South Bend set records in 2025.

9.79m 2023 10.52m 2024 10.62m 2025
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Passengers at Indianapolis International Airport a year, 2023 to 2025, arrivals and departures combined.
PeriodValue
20239.79m
202410.52m
202510.62m
Passengers at Indianapolis International Airport a year, 2023 to 2025, arrivals and departures combined. (Indianapolis Airport Authority, 2026)
  • The airport handled 10,520,326 passengers in 2024, up 7.5%, and 9,789,222 in 2023. (Indianapolis Airport Authority, 2025)
  • Southwest Airlines was the largest carrier at Indianapolis in 2025, with 1,485,462 departing passengers, 28% of the total, ahead of American (1,303,613), Delta (971,931) and United (691,809). (Indianapolis Airport Authority, 2026)
  • International passengers at Indianapolis rose 46.9% to 86,949 in 2025. (Indianapolis Airport Authority, 2026)
  • International passengers rose a further 47.5% to 99,637 from January to September 2026. (Indianapolis Airport Authority, Sep 2026)
  • Spirit Airlines carried 294,040 departing passengers at Indianapolis in 2025 but none after March 2026; Avelo Airlines began flying there in June 2026. (Indianapolis Airport Authority, Sep 2026)
  • On the federal count of boarding passengers in 2024, Indianapolis ranked 46th in the US with 5,181,947, ahead of South Bend (454,920), Fort Wayne (424,491) and Evansville (189,706). (FAA, Sep 2025)
  • Fort Wayne International Airport handled a record 983,042 passengers in 2025, up 14.7% from 856,803 in 2024. (Fort Wayne International Airport, 2026)
  • South Bend's previous passenger record, set in 1997, was 991,457. (South Bend International Airport, Feb 2026)

Indianapolis figures are the Airport Authority's own counts of arriving and departing passengers. The FAA figures count boarding passengers on a federal definition and differ from the airport's count, so the two are never put in one series. Passenger counts include residents and people changing planes. South Bend counts ticketed airline passengers. Many travellers in northwest Indiana use the Chicago airports, which are not counted here.

How many people reach Indiana by train?

Rail is a small part of travel to Indiana except in the northwest, where the South Shore Line links Chicago with the Indiana Dunes and South Bend. Its ridership has grown every year since 2022, and weekend use is rising too.

1.41m 2022 1.53m 2023 1.77m 2024 2.10m 2025
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South Shore Line passenger trips a year, 2022 to 2025. Ridership has grown by half in three years.
PeriodValue
20221.41m
20231.53m
20241.77m
20252.10m
South Shore Line passenger trips a year, 2022 to 2025. Ridership has grown by half in three years. (NICTD, Jan 2026)
  • Weekend trips on the South Shore Line, the best guide to leisure travel on the line, rose 15.3% to 404,374 in 2025. (NICTD, Jan 2026)
  • South Shore Line ridership was 1,526,836 trips in 2023 and 1,770,532 in 2024. (NICTD, Jan 2026)
  • Trips at the South Bend end of the line rose 24.94% to 251,748 in 2025. (NICTD, Jan 2026)
  • Amtrak counted 86,947 passengers boarding or leaving trains at Indiana's 10 stations in fiscal 2025, on about 11 trains a day over 4 routes. (Amtrak, 2025)
  • Indianapolis station had 12,655 Amtrak passengers on and off in fiscal 2025, fewer than Waterloo (21,178), Elkhart (20,541) and South Bend (18,677). (Amtrak, 2025)

South Shore Line figures are passenger trips on a commuter railway, January to December each year, and most riders are commuters, not visitors. Amtrak counts people getting on and off, not individual travellers, over a fiscal year from October to September. Indianapolis is served only by the Cardinal, three round trips a week.

How many people visit Indiana Dunes National Park?

Indiana Dunes accounts for about nine in ten of the state's national park visits. Visits have eased every year since the 2021 peak but remain well above the level before the pandemic.

2.16m 2017 1.76m 2018 2.13m 2019 2.29m 2020 3.18m 2021 2.83m 2022 2.77m 2023 2.71m 2024 2.63m 2025
View data table
Recreation visits to Indiana Dunes National Park a year, 2017 to 2025. Visits jumped in 2021 and have eased since.
PeriodValue
20172.16m
20181.76m
20192.13m
20202.29m
20213.18m
20222.83m
20232.77m
20242.71m
20252.63m
Recreation visits to Indiana Dunes National Park a year, 2017 to 2025. Visits jumped in 2021 and have eased since. (National Park Service, 2026)
  • Visits to Indiana Dunes peaked at 3,177,210 in 2021 and were 2,705,209 in 2024. (National Park Service, 2026)
  • Indiana Dunes was the 36th most visited of 398 National Park Service units in fiscal 2024; about 2.34 million of its visits involved sightseeing and 1.27 million hiking, walking or running. (National Park Service, Jul 2026)
  • Visitors to Indiana Dunes National Park spent an estimated $142.8 million in nearby communities in 2024, supporting 1,228 jobs and $192.9 million of economic output. (National Park Service, Sep 2025)
  • All National Park Service sites in Indiana drew 3,001,734 recreation visits in 2024, and their visitors spent $161.9 million in the state. (National Park Service, Sep 2025)
  • George Rogers Clark National Historical Park in Vincennes had 113,397 recreation visits in 2025, down from 166,621 in 2024. (National Park Service, 2026)
  • Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial had 115,517 recreation visits in 2025, against 129,904 in 2024. (National Park Service, 2026)

Recreation visits count entries, not individual people. Indiana Dunes became a national park in February 2019, having been a national lakeshore. The fiscal-year ranking covers October 2023 to September 2024, a different period from the calendar-year counts, and activities overlap, so they are not added up. Indiana Dunes State Park is a separate state property inside the national park and is counted by the state, not here. The National Park Service gives no reason for the 2025 fall at George Rogers Clark.

How many people visit Indiana's state parks?

Indiana's state parks and reservoirs get far more visits than its national parks, though the total has dipped since the 2022/23 fiscal year. The state park at the Indiana Dunes is the busiest, ahead of Brown County.

  1. 1 Indiana Dunes State Park 1.86m
  2. 2 Brown County State Park 1.47m
  3. 3 Fort Harrison State Park 1.16m
  4. 4 Brookville Lake 1.16m
  5. 5 Monroe Lake 937k
  6. 6 Turkey Run State Park 838k
  7. 7 Patoka Lake 829k
  8. 8 Spring Mill State Park 773k
Most visited Indiana state parks and reservoirs in the 2024/25 fiscal year, estimated visits. (Indiana DNR, Mar 2026)
  • The state park system had an estimated 18,959,443 visits in the 2023/24 fiscal year. (Indiana DNR, 2024)
  • The 2022/23 fiscal year brought 19,137,421 visits, the highest of the last four years published. (Indiana DNR, 2023)
  • Indiana Dunes State Park was the most visited state park in 2024/25, with an estimated 1,858,253 visits, ahead of Brown County State Park (1,471,154), Fort Harrison State Park (1,158,044) and Brookville Lake (1,157,194). (Indiana DNR, Mar 2026)
  • Visits to Indiana Dunes State Park rose from 1,670,751 in 2021/22 to 1,992,602 in 2023/24, while Brown County State Park peaked at 1,595,115 in 2022/23. (Indiana DNR, 2024)
  • Monroe Lake had an estimated 936,971 visits in 2024/25, Turkey Run State Park 837,649 and Patoka Lake 828,884. (Indiana DNR, Mar 2026)

State park visits are estimates by the Department of Natural Resources, not counts of people. The total includes nine reservoir properties owned by the US Army Corps of Engineers and run by the state. Indiana's fiscal year runs from July to June. Figures for 2025/26 have not been published yet.

What are Indiana's biggest events and attractions?

The Indianapolis 500 is the biggest single event, and in 2025 it sold out its grandstands for the first time since 2016. The State Fair and Gen Con each draw large crowds every summer.

830k 2021 18 days 838k 2022 18 days 840k 2023 18 days 854k 2024 15 days 855k 2025 15 days
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Indiana State Fair attendance, 2021 to 2025. The fair was cut from 18 to 15 days in 2024, so the last two years are shorter fairs with slightly higher totals. Each year comes from the release for that year; the link is to the latest one.
PeriodValueNote
2021830k18 days
2022838k18 days
2023840k18 days
2024854k15 days
2025855k15 days
Indiana State Fair attendance, 2021 to 2025. The fair was cut from 18 to 15 days in 2024, so the last two years are shorter fairs with slightly higher totals. Each year comes from the release for that year; the link is to the latest one. (Indiana State Fair Commission, 2025)
  • The Speedway supported 8,440 full-time-equivalent jobs and $360 million in labour income in Indiana in the year to May 2023; counting spending by visitors from within Indiana too, its total economic contribution was $1.06 billion. (IU Public Policy Institute, Oct 2023)
  • The Month of May 2023 at the Speedway, with the Indianapolis 500, the Grand Prix, practice and qualifying, produced $480 million of economic impact; visitors to the 500 alone accounted for $248 million. (IU Public Policy Institute, Oct 2023)
  • The Speedway can hold more than 350,000 fans, with seating for 235,000. (IU Public Policy Institute, Mar 2025)
  • The 2025 Indianapolis 500 was the first full grandstand sellout since 2016, which lifted the local TV blackout in place since 1951. (Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Dec 2025)
  • The State Fair drew 854,236 in 2024, its first year at 15 days, against 840,414 over 18 days in 2023. (Indiana State Fair Commission, Aug 2024)
  • Gen Con 2025, the tabletop gaming convention at the Indiana Convention Center, drew a record of nearly 72,000 attendees and more than 575 exhibiting companies; the organisers put its economic impact at more than $82 million. (Gen Con, Aug 2025)
  • The 2026 men's Final Four in Indianapolis drew more than 86,000 fans to its Fan Fest events over the weekend, a record for the event, helped by 1,929 volunteers. (Indiana Sports Corp, Apr 2026)
  • The Children's Museum of Indianapolis had 1,205,198 visitors in 2023, against a record 1,318,930 in 2019. (Children's Museum of Indianapolis, 2025)

The State Fair was shortened from 18 to 15 days in 2024, so totals before and after the change are not like for like. The Speedway figures are from an Indiana University study commissioned with data from the Speedway; economic impact counts only spending by visitors living more than 100 miles away, and the period includes a one-off construction project. The Speedway does not publish race attendance, so only capacity is given. The Gen Con impact figure is the organiser's estimate, and Fan Fest attendance is not game tickets.

When is the best time to visit Indiana?

Late spring and early autumn are the most comfortable times to visit, with highs in the 70s F. Summer is the busiest season at the Dunes, and the north of the state gets far more snow than the south.

87k Jan 69k Feb 124k Mar 137k Apr 272k May 426k Jun 424k Jul 394k Aug 259k Sep 202k Oct 104k Nov 132k Dec
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Recreation visits to Indiana Dunes National Park by month in 2025. June to August bring almost half the year's visits.
PeriodValue
Jan87k
Feb69k
Mar124k
Apr137k
May272k
Jun426k
Jul424k
Aug394k
Sep259k
Oct202k
Nov104k
Dec132k
Recreation visits to Indiana Dunes National Park by month in 2025. June to August bring almost half the year's visits. (National Park Service, 2026)
  • Indianapolis averages a high of 85.2F in July and 36.1F in January, with lows of 66.4F and 20.9F. (NOAA, 2021)
  • May (73.4F) and September (78.2F) are the mild months either side of summer in Indianapolis. (NOAA, 2021)
  • Indianapolis gets 43.63 inches of rain a year, most in June (4.95 in), and 25.5 inches of snow; 19.9 days a year reach 90F or more. (NOAA, 2021)
  • South Bend, near Lake Michigan, averages 64.5 inches of snow a year. (NOAA, 2021)
  • Evansville in the far south is the warmest of the three cities, with 41.0 days a year at 90F or more and only 10.8 inches of snow. (NOAA, 2021)
  • At Indiana Dunes National Park, June (425,848) and July (423,731) were the busiest months of 2025 and February the quietest, with 68,915 visits. (National Park Service, 2026)
  • June to August brought 1,243,244 visits to the Dunes in 2025, 47% of the year's total. (National Park Service, 2026)
  • October 2025 was the first month in which Indianapolis International Airport handled more than a million passengers, with 1,056,849. (Indianapolis Airport Authority, 2026)

Temperatures are 1991-2020 climate normals in degrees Fahrenheit at each city's airport weather station. The summer share of Dunes visits and the October airport total are calculated from the published monthly figures. Airport traffic mixes residents and visitors.

How safe is Indiana for visitors?

Indiana's reported violent crime rate is a little below the US rate, and its property crime rate is lower too. The rate reported by the Indianapolis police is well above the state average.

  • Indiana police agencies reported 21,097 violent crimes in 2024, about 349 per 100,000 residents covered, against about 363 across the US. (FBI, 2025)
  • The reported property crime rate was about 1,506 per 100,000 in 2024, against 1,766 across the US, and the violent crime rate was down from about 380 in 2023. (FBI, 2025)
  • Indiana reported 396 murders and nonnegligent manslaughters in 2024, about 6.5 per 100,000 covered residents, against about 5.2 nationally. (FBI, 2025)
  • The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department reported 8,342 violent crimes in 2024, about 937 per 100,000 residents of its area, including 172 homicides. (FBI, 2025)

These are offences reported to the FBI by the agencies that took part, covering about 88% of Indiana's population against about 97% nationally, and rates are per 100,000 people covered. Annual totals add the published monthly figures. 2025 data are left out because reports from Indianapolis for late 2025 look incomplete. The Indianapolis figures cover the city police area only.

Glossary

IDDC
The Indiana Destination Development Corporation, the state tourism office, which commissions the annual tourism economic impact study from Rockport Analytics.
Visitor
In the IDDC study, anyone on an overnight stay or a day trip of 50 miles or more one way, Indiana residents included. Visitors are counted as trips, not people.
Gross state product
The value of everything produced in Indiana, the state version of GDP. Tourism's contribution here includes ripple effects.
Innkeeper's tax
A county tax on hotel and other short stays in Indiana. Each county sets its own rate.
BLS
The Bureau of Labor Statistics, the federal body that counts payroll jobs by industry and area.
Leisure and hospitality
The BLS industry group covering restaurants, bars, hotels, arts, entertainment and recreation, serving residents and visitors alike.
IND
Indianapolis International Airport, run by the Indianapolis Airport Authority.
FAA
The Federal Aviation Administration, which publishes boarding passenger counts for every US commercial airport.
NICTD
The Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District, which runs the South Shore Line between Chicago and South Bend.
Recreation visit
A National Park Service count of entries for recreation, not of individual people; one person can be counted more than once.
DNR
The Indiana Department of Natural Resources, which runs the state parks and estimates their visits.

Methodology and sources

State totals for visitors, spending, jobs and taxes come from the annual economic impact studies Rockport Analytics produces for IDDC, and each cite names the study year; the 2024 study, published in December 2025, is the latest. County figures come from Rockport Analytics county studies as published by each county tourism office. Innkeeper's tax figures are actual collections from the Indiana Department of Revenue, payroll jobs come from BLS, airport figures from each airport and the FAA, park visits from the National Park Service and Indiana DNR, climate normals from NOAA and crime figures from the FBI. Each number links to the body that produced it, with the date. Measures that count different things, such as tourism-supported jobs and payroll jobs, or airport and FAA passenger counts, are given side by side and not merged. Figures with no stated year, press-only figures and hotel occupancy and room rates are left out. The page is reviewed monthly and the date is shown at the top.