印度申办2029年ICCA大会，拟设国家投标基金并扩建展馆至百万平米

India has submitted their bid to host the 2029 International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) Congress in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

Alongside the bid, India is collaborating with ICCA to establish a permanent regional office in the country, aiming to expand professional development and foster long-term partnerships across the global meetings sector.

“We see our candidature for the 2029 ICCA Congress as an opportunity to showcase India’s capabilities, hospitality, infrastructure, and destination diversity. Our objective is to move beyond participation and build a deeper long-term partnership,” announced India’s minister of tourism, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, during his speech at ICCA Congress 2026.

Shekhawat also revealed that the Ministry of Tourism is in the process of developing the Bharat MICE Bid Fund Programme, a structured financial and non-financial support mechanism designed to back Indian cities and state governments in competing for major international events.

While India hosted 158 qualifying international association meetings in 2025 – ranking 26^th globally and sixth in the Asia-Pacific region – Shekhawat emphasised that the nation is looking beyond incremental growth. While India’s domestic business events sector reached an estimated US$50 billion in 2024, its share of the international market remains modest, even as global business travel spending moves towards US$2 trillion by 2030.

“Our ambition is to close the gap between our domestic market size and our global share; not merely by attracting more events, but by making India a preferred destination for international meetings, conventions, and exhibitions,” Shekhawat noted.

To scale up international hosting capabilities, India is expanding its national exhibition space from 600,000m² to one million square metres by 2030.

Recent infrastructure investments include venues such as Bharat Mandapam and Yashobhoomi in Delhi NCR, Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai, Hyderabad International Convention Centre in Telangana, India Expo Centre & Mart in Greater Noida, and Bangalore International Exhibition Centre in Karnataka. Following the successful hosting of the G20 Leaders’ Summit – which encompassed over 200 meetings across 60 cities – India also confirmed it will host the annual World Travel & Tourism Council Global Summit in 2027.

Under the broader Bharat MICE framework, India is establishing city-level promotion bureaus to bolster regional bidding capabilities, using the existing Hyderabad Convention Bureau model to develop a dedicated bureau for the Delhi NCR region.

“We are also working towards a recognition framework for professional conference organisers and professional exhibition organisers. This will strengthen quality, credibility, and professionalism across the industry… to create an ecosystem in which international event organisers can work with India confidently, efficiently, and predictably,” Shekhawat stated.