Pratik Mathur Strengthens India’s Tourism and Aviation Outreach in Shanghai

As India expands its global engagement across tourism, aviation, and regional connectivity, Shanghai has emerged as an important platform for advancing India’s strategic partnerships across Asia. Over the past week, Consul General of India in Shanghai, Shri Pratik Mathur, led a series of high-level engagements focused on strengthening India’s international presence across the tourism and civil aviation ecosystem.

A major highlight of these engagements was India’s inaugural participation at ITB China 2026, one of Asia’s largest tourism and travel trade exhibitions. India marked its presence at the event through dedicated Rajasthan and Goa pavilions, showcasing the country’s tourism diversity, cultural heritage, hospitality ecosystem, and experiential travel opportunities to global travel industry stakeholders and international delegates.

India’s participation at ITB China reflects the country’s broader push to strengthen tourism diplomacy and increase its engagement with international tourism markets, particularly across Asia. With global travel patterns increasingly shifting toward experiential, wellness, cultural, and luxury-led tourism, India is positioning itself as a destination capable of catering to multiple categories of travellers across segments.

The participation also highlighted India’s growing focus on enhancing tourism infrastructure, hospitality experiences, and cross-border tourism partnerships under the larger vision of Viksit Bharat 2047. Greater collaboration between hospitality brands, travel companies, tourism operators, and regional stakeholders is expected to play an important role in driving tourism-led economic growth and strengthening people-to-people exchanges between India and international markets.

The Rajasthan and Goa pavilions drew attention for presenting India’s blend of heritage tourism, luxury hospitality, leisure travel, and experiential tourism offerings, reinforcing the country’s positioning as one of the world’s most diverse travel destinations. India’s presence at the exhibition also reflected a larger effort to deepen engagement with one of Asia’s most significant outbound tourism markets.

Alongside tourism engagements, India also strengthened its outreach in the aviation sector ahead of the 10th Low Cost Air Carriers Summit in Shanghai. Shri Pratik Mathur met with prominent Indian aviation experts, including Shri Kamal Hingorani, Chief Customer Officer of SpiceJet, and Prof. Sandeep Bahl, to discuss developments in the aviation industry across Asia and opportunities for greater regional cooperation.

The discussions focused on the rapid evolution of India’s aviation ecosystem, which has witnessed significant transformation in recent years through airport modernization, regional connectivity expansion, infrastructure development, fleet growth, policy reforms, and digitalization initiatives. India today remains one of the fastest-growing aviation markets globally, driven by rising passenger demand and increasing connectivity requirements across domestic and international routes.

The interaction also explored opportunities for deeper cooperation in aviation management, innovation, training, airport modernization, logistics integration, skill development, and knowledge exchange between stakeholders across India and the Asia-Pacific region. Industry experts participating in the discussions shared perspectives on evolving trends in low-cost aviation, air transport innovation, and future growth opportunities emerging across regional aviation markets.

Taken together, the engagements reflect India’s broader effort to strengthen its economic and strategic integration with Asia through tourism partnerships, connectivity expansion, and international collaboration. From showcasing India’s tourism potential on a global platform to facilitating conversations around the future of aviation and mobility, the developments in Shanghai underline India’s growing focus on building stronger regional partnerships across sectors that are increasingly shaping global economic engagement.