- ITB India 2026 will bring senior travel, hospitality, MICE and technology executives to Mumbai from 1–3 September, with the conference examining the forces reshaping India’s and South Asia’s travel markets.
- More than 80 industry experts are expected to contribute to the conference programme, covering AI, corporate travel, MICE, travel technology, experiential tourism, cruise and changing traveller behaviour.
- A new invitation-only ITB India Leadership Roundtable, developed with Simon-Kucher, will examine India’s growing importance as both a tourism destination and a global outbound travel market.
ITB India 2026 puts technology, MICE and changing traveller behaviour at centre stage
India’s rapidly evolving travel market will come under the spotlight in Mumbai next month as ITB India 2026 prepares to bring together senior decision-makers from the leisure, corporate travel, MICE, hospitality and travel technology sectors.
The fourth in-person edition of the three-day B2B event is scheduled for 1–3 September 2026 at the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai, where industry executives, buyers and international exhibitors will gather to discuss business opportunities and the structural changes influencing travel across India and South Asia. The event is being held alongside MICE Show India and Travel Tech India.
At the centre of the programme will be the ITB India Conference 2026, designed to examine how changing consumer expectations, technology adoption and new commercial models are altering the travel landscape.
The organisers say the conference will feature more than 80 industry experts and more than 1,400 minutes of content, reinforcing its role as a forum for strategic discussion alongside the event’s business meetings and networking programme.
Four tracks to examine travel’s next phase
The conference programme will be delivered across two stages — the Knowledge & MICE Theatre and Tech & Experience Theatre — with discussions organised around four principal themes: Knowledge, MICE & Corporate, Travel Technology and Experiential Travel.
The Knowledge & MICE Theatre will focus on the economic and market forces influencing travel, while examining how corporate travel and meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions are adapting to an increasingly complex operating environment.
One of the headline sessions, “The Next Battlegrounds in Travel: A Fireside Chat with MakeMyTrip”, will examine the next stage of travel-sector competition, including artificial intelligence, distribution, partnerships, experience-led travel and market expansion.
The discussion will feature Raj Rishi Singh, Chief Operating Officer – Flights, Corporate Travel, Gulf Countries & Marketing at MakeMyTrip, alongside Coney Dongre, Research Manager at Phocuswright.
Corporate travel will also receive significant attention. A panel titled “Corporate Travel in the Age of Disruption: What’s Next?” will bring together executives from Cipla, Deloitte India and FCM Travel India to consider the impact of geopolitical uncertainty, economic pressures and changing employee expectations on business travel programmes.
Technology moves from adoption to competitive advantage
At the Tech & Experience Theatre, the focus will shift towards the intersection of technology, traveller expectations and experience design.
The session “From Digital Adoption to Digital Advantage in Travel” will examine how travel companies can move beyond technology deployment and turn digital investment into measurable competitive advantage.
Speakers will include Sandeep Dwivedi, Managing Director – Travel Sellers, India and the Subcontinent at Amadeus, and Nithyashree Sathyanarayanan, Associate Vice President – New Initiatives and Chief of Staff at The ePlane Company.
Artificial intelligence and digital transformation are expected to remain important themes throughout the programme as travel companies seek to improve personalisation, operational efficiency and customer engagement.
The event’s dedicated Travel Tech India platform will also run alongside the main show, bringing technology providers, startups and travel businesses together around emerging digital solutions.
Traveller values increasingly influence experience design
The conference will also look beyond technology to examine how the motivations of travellers are changing.
“Travel with Intent: How Values, Emotions and Purpose Shape the New Traveller” will explore the factors influencing travel decisions and the growing importance of purpose and personal values in experience design.
Participants will include Daniel Dsouza, Co-Founder of DreamSetGo; Capt. M Chouhan, Chief of Staff & Chief of Flight Safety at SkyWaltz; and Scott Wegener, Head of Asia Pacific at Tripadvisor.
The programme will extend into emerging experience categories, including cruise tourism. A dedicated session on MICE cruising in India will examine the potential for cruise products to play a larger role in meetings, incentives and corporate events.
Senior industry voices across the travel ecosystem
The wider speaker line-up brings together representatives from travel management companies, OTAs, hospitality groups, tourism organisations, travel technology companies and research firms.
Among those scheduled to contribute are Harshad Donde of BCD Meetings & Events, Rohit Kohli of Creative Travel, Vivek Neb of Escalent, Darshana Shirodkar of Expedia Group, Sushmita Sarangi of Taj Hotels, Gaurav Chiripal of QuadLabs, Kamaldeep Singh of Spotnana and Saurav Chakraborty of Travel Buddy.
The breadth of the programme reflects the increasingly interconnected nature of the travel industry, where hospitality, distribution, technology, corporate travel, destination marketing and experience-led tourism are increasingly converging.
New leadership roundtable to examine India’s global tourism role
A new feature of the 2026 programme will be the inaugural ITB India Leadership Roundtable, organised in partnership with global strategy consultancy Simon-Kucher.
The invitation-only forum will bring together senior executives from tourism, hospitality, travel technology, destination development and related sectors to examine India’s changing position in global tourism.
The discussion comes as India’s importance extends beyond its role as a major tourism destination. The country’s expanding outbound market is increasingly shaping international tourism strategies, with destinations, airlines, hotels and travel companies competing to capture Indian travellers.
Lovrenc Kessler, Senior Partner at Simon-Kucher, said India’s simultaneous emergence as a destination and source market creates significant opportunities, but also requires the industry to consider how growth can be translated into sustainable long-term value.
Mumbai becomes meeting point for India’s travel industry
ITB India 2026 is expected to bring together more than 100 exhibitors and over 3,000 participants, including more than 400 buyers from India and South Asia, according to the organisers.
The event’s broader programme combines the exhibition, business meetings, conference sessions and networking opportunities, with MICE Show India and Travel Tech India taking place concurrently at the Jio World Convention Centre.
The event is therefore positioned not simply as a trade exhibition, but as a meeting point for the different segments increasingly shaping India’s travel economy.
With AI, digital distribution, corporate travel, experiential tourism and India’s growing global influence dominating the agenda, the September gathering is set to provide an industry-level snapshot of where India’s travel market is heading — and how international businesses can participate in its next phase of growth.
