SATTE, ATITHI gear up to bring 400+ overseas buyers under one roof
SATTE in collaboration with ATITHI, SEPC hosted World Tourism Day Leadership Meet 2026 on Sept 30 under the theme “Building Stronger Two-Way Tourism Ties.” The event brought together over 100 leaders and industry stakeholders from travel trade.
South Asia's Travel & Tourism Exchange (SATTE) in collaboration with Service Export Promotion Council (SEPC) hosted World Tourism Day Leadership Meet 2026 on September 30 at Hotel Pride Plaza, Aerocity, Delhi, under the theme “Building Stronger Two-Way Tourism Ties.”
During the event Dr Abhay Sinha, Director General, Services Export Promotion Council (SEPC) announced that SATTE and ATITHI will deepen their partnership at the 34th edition of SATTE to be held from January 19–21, 2027, with plans to bring more than 400 overseas international buyers to India for curated B2B meetings.
The event brought together over 100 leaders and industry stakeholders from travel trade. Present at the event were Nadeska Cuthbert, Ambassador, Embassy of Republic of Nicaragua; Aishath Zaifa, First Secretary, High Commission of the Republic of Maldives; Abdulaziz Abduganiev, First Secretary at the Embassy of Uzbekistan, Delhi (handling the tourism portfolio); Kapila J. Kumara, Minister Counsellor (Commercial), High Commission of Sri Lanka; Dr Ayat Saad Ahmed, Head of Egyptian Cultural and Educational Bureau, Embassy of Egypt; Kosuke Matsumura, Director, Japan National Tourism Organization, Delhi Office; Ujwal Sood, Senior Manager, Japan National Tourism Organization, Delhi Office; Pallavi Mehra, Sr. Group Director, SATTE and Publisher of T3 at inD among other key industry leaders.
Mehra said the next phase of growth lies in the quality of exchange, not just volumes. “India has so much to offer to the world, and equally, there is so much we can learn from the world,” she said. “ATITHI and SATTE have both been built around this spirit of connection. ATITHI brings the world to India, while SATTE creates a platform where destination, business, and travel community comes together to create opportunities.” She emphasised that opportunity moves beyond simply increasing visitor numbers, and is more about creating deeper, long-lasting, meaningful bilateral exchange between important stakeholders, (business, destination and travel community).
Reflecting on the theme of the event, Sinha said that tourism must be a two-way approach and cannot be one sided. He also said that in the upcoming edition of SATTE, ATITHI will serve this. Highlighting the importance of SATTE, he said, “SATTE acts as wide world travel marketplace, a huge canvas. In that canvas, we are going to have a focused inbound platform connecting India’s tourism sector. We would like to bring more than 400 overseas business facilitators, and that will be and opportunity under one roof- outbound as well as inbound.”
The event also featured a fireside chat moderated by Dr. Sinha and featured panelists as Pronab Sarkar, Owner, Swagatam Tours Pvt. Ltd; and Ravi Gosain, President, IATO. Sarkar told the key change the industry is facing right now is outbound tourism is happening four times more than inbound in India. And the main reason is people want to explore more despite sitting at home. He acknowledged the need to promote India as a destination as he describes the country as a destination that has more to show than what each country of the world together can show.
Gosain said India needs “Incredible India and incredible Indians,” noting that Indians abroad market the country informally, but that professional, strategic marketing is still essential to position India as a market-ready destination. “Without marketing, without branding, we cannot promote India professionally,” he said. He pointed to infrastructure gains, including 163 airports and 1,600 to 1,800 aircraft expected in coming years, and said the current slowdown linked to geopolitical conditions will pass.
On the sidelines of the event Sinha spoke about that Ministry of Commerce’s Export Promotion Mission (EPM) scheme, which was announced in Union Budget 2025–26. With a total outlay of INR 25,060 crore for FY 2025-26 to FY 2030-31, EPM aims to strengthen India’s export ecosystem, improve access to affordable trade finance and enhance global market readiness and competitiveness across sectors and regions.
Sinha explained that the scheme has got two dimensions: Niryat Protsahan (credit financing and collateral support) and Niryat Disha (global market access and export direction). The scheme serves as a comprehensive framework to boost India’s export competitiveness across both goods and services. For the tourism and hospitality sector, which earns foreign exchange as a service export (inbound tourism), the scheme is structured to replace older incentive models (like SEIS) with structured, capability-building, and market-access ecosystem.
Sinha further elaborated, under Niryat Disha, the government supports unified international marketing to position Indian destinations and niche segment globally under Brand India banner. Under this vertical inbound tour operators, hoteliers and marts or approved overseas roadshows will receive partial reimbursement for exhibition stall costs and travel airfares, alongside support for hosting foreign buyers at domestic platforms like Atithi. Additionally, the scheme funds inbound market intelligence research, foreign language training, and digital upskilling for travel professionals through its INSIGHT component. The TRACE (Trade Regulation, Accreditation & Compliance Enablement) vertical offsets expenses tied to international tourism accreditations, overseas agency registrations, and regulatory compliance. On the other hand, Niryat Protsahan focuses on the needs of travel enterprises to access to affordable trade finance, credit facilitation through Indian banks, and collateral-backing mechanisms to ease working capital constraints for exporters.
