Messe Berlin announces first edition of ITB India in April 2020

Messe Berlin, one of the world’s leading trade fair companies, announced that it will be organising the inaugural ITB India in 2020. The three-day business-to-business travel trade show and convention will take place at the Bombay Exhibition Centre in Mumbai, from 15 to 17 April 2020. ITB India represents a major opportunity for National Tourism Organisations (NTOs), travel, and hospitality companies to be part of this dramatically expanding market opportunity.

The show will bring together key travel industry leaders and buyers from cities across India, and international exhibitors from the MICE, leisure and corporate sectors. ITB India will also have a Hosted Buyers’ Programme that will cater to buyers from first, second, and third tier cities in India.

One of the fastest-growing major economies and with the second-largest population in the world, India has vast potential for both inbound and outbound travel. The Indian travel industry is expected to be valued at US$56 billion by 2020 with UNTWO, the World Tourism Organization, predicting that there will 50 million outbound travellers by then.

Dr. Christian Göke, Chief Executive Officer of Messe Berlin said: “From a global and regional perspective, India is a vast source market for the travel industry with a huge growth potential. We are delighted that ITB India will in future complement the trio of ITB Berlin, ITB Asia and ITB China, making it a quartet and strengthening the global ITB brand.”

India’s economic growth means that its citizens are earning more disposable income to spend on travel. India’s outbound travel expenditure increased 7% on average year-on-year between 2006 and 2016 and saw an even higher growth rate of 8.5% in travel expenditure from 2015 to 2016. This rate was considerably higher than growth rates seen by other major countries including China, Indonesia, and Brazil for the same period.

“Having successfully run eleven editions of ITB Asia, it is logical for us to progress to the next frontier of travel in Asia. India represents an extremely promising market with a growing purchasing power among travellers from the region. We are optimistic that ITB India will be a prominent platform for attendees from the MICE, leisure and corporate sectors to come together to further grow the Indian travel market,” said Katrina Leung, Managing Director of Messe Berlin (Singapore), the organiser of ITB India.

“As ITB is a renowned international brand, we are delighted to be a key partner and together, make ITB India the leading travel trade event for the India market,” commented Bernhard Steinrücke, Director General, Indo-German Chamber of Commerce.

Of the buyers at ITB India, 50% are expected to focus on leisure travel, with MICE and corporate travel buyers making up the remainder with 25% respectively. Almost a third of all buyers at ITB India are expected to have a purchasing power of more than US$1million.

C-suite level and key decision makers are expected to make the bulk of buyers present at ITB India with 70% of them from this segment. 86% of expected buyers at ITB India will also be from the western and northern parts of India.