TravTalk India Online Magazine
Mélange 2025, organised by the Mumbai Travel Fraternity, has been hailed as a monumental success. Not only did it draw participants from six continents, it gave birth to a sustainable model for trade exhibitions in the country with its innovative and standardised plug ’n play floor plan. The team now sets its sights on an even grander edition at Jio Convention Centre.
Hazel Jain
The MTF Co-founders — Pradeep Saboo, Rajat Bagaria, and Sameer Karnani — reveal the strategic choices that fuelled the success of Mélange’s second edition — from closing registrations early to ensuring a global mix and hosting a buyer programme that saw overwhelming demand.
Pradeep Saboo, Co-founder, Mumbai Travel Fraternity (MTF), says, “We were overwhelmed with the support we received from the industry for Mélange 2025. We saw some fabulous suppliers from all over the world — from six continents covering South America, Canada, Morocco, Japan, Korea, Greece and Africa.”
One of the defining features of Mélange has been its curated, spaced-out format with controlled numbers, which allowed participants the opportunity for substantive discussions rather than just card exchanges. “Our aim was to clear every small and big pain point any exhibitor faces during big shows. This means building the stalls, having the same booth design for every category. The idea was to standardise the design, so the spending on the design and the build-up of the booths for exhibitors was eradicated. So, there is a uniformity, there is no super spends,” he elaborates.
“We also had a fantastic range of buyers from all corners of the country — Guwahati, Kochi, Ludhiana. We hosted about 350 buyers,” he adds.
Rajat Bagaria, Co-founder, MTF, says, “This year, we started the hosted buyers programme in June, and we had to close it within 20 days because our expected number was already met. We had around 350-plus buyers from places like Siliguri, Kolkata, Delhi, Punjab, Gujarat, and even Pune.” Their vision is firmly set on expanding the event’s reach beyond the metros. “Tier II, tier III city markets are where a lot of tourism boards do not reach out for their roadshows. So, our interest is definitely to tap those markets,” he says.
But what truly signalled the event’s value, according to Bagaria, was the number of professionals who were willing to invest their own money. “There was also a large chunk of people from Gujarat, Pune, Nasik, and many other cities who visited the show at their own cost. When you are offering quality exhibitors, people are ready to spend,” he adds.
Sameer Karnani, Cofounder, MTF, says, “We recorded almost 375 exhibitors and almost 3,000 buyers this year, forging more than 250,000 meaningful connections on our app. There was an agent whom we felicitated yesterday, had 160 meetings in one day. We also had a good mix of airlines like Emirates, Air India, IndiGo, Singapore Airlines, OmanAir, and Fly91.
