Tulum will be participating in a leading Asian travel trade show held in Mumbai, India from Feb. 8 to 10, as it aims to attract new investors and foreign markets to the city and surrounding region. 

Taking place in India’s largest city, the OTM Mumbai 2024 fair will bring together 1,250 exhibitors from 50 countries, including tour operators, wedding planners, travel agencies, airline representatives and hotels.

Jorge Molina Pérez, the head of the Tulum tourist board, said the exhibition will highlight Tulum as an ideal location for digital startups, fashion and film productions. Most of all, however, they will focus on capturing the Indian wedding market, as they believe this will encourage longer stays for wedding guests, and generate greater revenue for the local economy.

“Our aim is to showcase the cultural and natural wonders of our city, with a primary focus on the wedding industry,” Molina told newspaper La Jornada. “We believe that this will help diversify the economy and bring in new sectors and industries.”  

Molina said the Indian market has the largest population of upper-middle-class individuals in the world, who often travel in large groups and have high purchasing power. Many reside in the United States, Canada, and Europe. 

Although there are no direct flights from India to Tulum, travelers from India can fly to Cancún via Istanbul.

According to tourism consultancy IPK International, India became Asia’s largest origin country for international travelers for the first time in 2022. 

Over the past three years, Indians made around 1.8 billion trips and the country’s travel industry recorded an 8% growth in both domestic and international travel. Moreover, Mumbai is India’s largest travel source market and acts as the primary exit point for the West and South Indian markets, contributing to 60% of India’s outbound tourist markets.

With reports from La Jornada Maya and La Verdad