Partners, members, and industry leaders from across continents gathered for several days of business, cultural immersion, and a post-meeting familiarisation programme that redefined what many delegates thought they knew about India.
The meeting began not in a ballroom, but at the Gagangiri Temple, where Mario Enzesberger gathered with his family and Liberty India team for a traditional havan, a sacred fire ceremony, to mark the company’s 35th anniversary. It was a moment of quiet intention before the days ahead, and one that set the tone for everything that followed: personal, purposeful, and deeply rooted.
“Thirty-five years in this industry teaches you that no network is stronger than the relationships within it. What we celebrated in Mumbai was not a number, it was the people who chose to build something with us. That is what Liberty has always been about, and that is what it will continue to be,” said Mario Enzesberger, Founder & CEO, Liberty International Tourism Group.
True to Liberty’s belief that the best meetings happen outside of meeting rooms, no two sessions of the Annual Meeting shared the same setting, and none were conventional. A sales workshop at The Clearing House, one of Mumbai’s most storied heritage spaces, opened the programme with a Dabbawala-style tiffin lunch. The following day, delegates crossed Mumbai Harbour by ferry, guided by a maritime storyteller, to Soulinarie, a coastal retreat in Alibaug, for a full-day workshop and sundowner with Indian cultural experiences woven throughout.
The General Session on 17 March was held at the iconic Eros Cinema in Churchgate, where delegates arrived to actual movie tickets and a Kathak Rockers opening performance. Beyond the milestones and business presentations, the session featured a panel discussion titled The Great Indian Paradox: a sharp, honest conversation about India’s identity as a global destination, led by some of the country’s most respected voices in hospitality and travel, including Shobha Rudra, Founder of RARE India, and Himmat Anand, Founder of Snowfox Escapes. The room left with a more nuanced, and more compelling, understanding of what India offers the world.
The meeting culminated in a Gala Dinner at the Taj Mahal Palace, but it was a moment midway through the evening that no one in the room will forget. Chef Hemant Oberoi, the legendary former Executive Chef of the Taj, joined the gathering and shared a first-hand account of the night of 26/11, the 2008 terror attacks, when he was inside the very building where the delegates now sat. His story of courage, calm, and humanity in the face of unimaginable circumstances brought the room to silence and reminded every person present of what the Taj Mahal Palace truly stands for. It was, by any measure, the defining moment of the meeting.
“Hosting this network in India was a privilege and a statement. India is no longer an emerging destination; it is a destination that is ready, confident, and genuinely world-class. Designing an agenda that let our global partners experience that firsthand was something we are immensely proud of,” said Prashant Yadav, CEO, Liberty India.
Partners returned home with a fundamentally changed view of India: as a MICE destination, as a travel market, and as a place of extraordinary human depth. As Liberty enters its next chapter, the focus remains on expanding its 120+ destination portfolio, deepening cross-market collaboration, and meeting a global travel industry in transition. The 2026 Annual Meeting in Mumbai set the tone for what comes next.
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