Shreya Shimpi
OTM 2026, Asia’s leading travel trade show, was held at the Jio World Convention Centre, Mumbai, from 5-7th February, 2026.The show brought together the global travel and tourism ecosystem at a time when India has firmly emerged as one of the world’s most strategically important outbound travel markets. Recognised by NielsenIQ as the Leading Travel Trade Show in India and Asia for two consecutive years, OTM 2026 hosted over 2,200 exhibitors from more than 60 countries, with 45+ National Tourism Organisations participating and over 50,000 travel trade visitors and 1,000+ top travel industry professionals participating over the three days. It witnessed global participation through strong representation from Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, the Americas and Oceania, including long-standing outbound markets and a growing number of emerging and experiential destinations engaging with India as a priority growth market.
The OTM Forum brings together policymakers and senior industry leaders from across the global travel ecosystem, including executives from MakeMyTrip, Cleartrip, Thomas Cook India, SOTC Travel, Paytm, TBO.com, Google India, Deloitte, Reliance Industries, Aditya Birla Group, Godrej Industries, VFS Global, IHCL, and leading national tourism boards and airlines. The session “Unlocking EU–India Opportunities for Tourism and Hospitality,” organised in collaboration with European institutional partners bought together senior industry leaders including Rajeev Kale, President & Country Head, Thomas Cook India Ltd.; Anahita Avari, Head of Sales, South Asia, VFS Global; Aparna Chaturvedi, Country Head, Europamundo; and Delna Jasoomoney, Vice President – Travel Industry Sales, IHCL, and is moderated by Vijayata N. Raheja, COO, K Raheja Group.
Commenting at the inauguration, Sanjiv Agarwal, Chairman & CEO, Fairfest Media Ltd., said, “OTM was created to reflect the reality of global travel today, where India is no longer an emerging opportunity but one of the most sought-after and strategic travel markets globally. The participation we see at OTM 2026, from established destinations to emerging and exotic ones, clearly demonstrates how the world is repositioning itself around the Indian traveller. OTM continues to serve as the leading travel show in Asia – one where this engagement takes shape in a focused, world-class setting.”
Day 1 of OTM 2026 commenced with the official inauguration of the exhibition, followed by a VIP walk-around and exhibitor interactions, leading into the flagship Inaugural Programme titled “India Takes Its Place on the Global Travel Stage.” The show was inaugurated by Datuk Manoharan Periasamy, Chairman, Tourism Malaysia, Richard Duval, Minister of Tourism of Mauritius; H.E. Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, Minister for Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts, Sarawak; and Hon. Prof. Ruwan Ranasinghe, Deputy Minister of Tourism, Sri Lanka, and was moderated by Tanya Khanijow.
The afternoon programme included the CEOs’ Lunch, followed by the panel “India at 100 Million: The Global Race to Capture the Next Big Traveller Wave,” bringing together destination leaders Christian Schoch (Switzerland Tourism), Dinesh Burrenchobay (Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority), Gary Hendricks-Dominguez (Cayman Islands Department of Tourism), Islom Ibragimov (Tourism Committee of Uzbekistan), Nuwal Fadhilah Binti Ku Azmi (Tourism Malaysia) and Sheetal Munshaw (Atout France). The day concluded with a market-focused discussion on demand and disruption in India’s online travel market, featuring CXOs from Cleartrip, MakeMyTrip and Paytm Travel, moderated by Virendra Jain (VIDEC). OTM 2026 also featured Malaysia Airlines as the Partner Airline.
OTM 2026 continued to strengthen its positioning as a focused B2B market-access platform designed to deliver measurable business outcomes. The exhibition saw the convergence of leading hotels and resorts, destination management companies, cruise operators, travel technology providers and specialised travel segments, enabling structured engagement. Over the three days, the Forum continued with a series of closed-door and open sessions examining outbound travel growth, destination strategy, aviation connectivity, corporate travel, emerging markets and the future of travel distribution making it a resounding success.
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