India’s Ministry of Tourism is adopting a different approach to promoting the country as a business events destination, moving away from a centralised strategy towards a state-led model.
The India Convention Promotion Bureau (ICPB) – a public-private partnership that has long led global marketing efforts – will transition into an advisory role, supporting individual states in developing their business events infrastructure and promotional strategies.
“We realised that a single central body such as the ICPB may not be sufficient to deliver the desired results for a country as large and diverse as India. This is why we believe that establishing dedicated MICE Bureaus at the state and city levels is the way forward,” Arun Srivastava, joint director general at the Ministry of Tourism, told delegates at the 15th Convention India Conclave 2026.
The new guidelines encourage states and union territories to build localised bureaus. Presently, Telangana is the only state with a dedicated city-level bureau: the Hyderabad Convention Visitors Bureau. The Ministry believes the sector’s next phase of growth lies in building cohesive, city-wide ecosystems rather than just standalone venues.
“Hyderabad is a great example of what can happen when an entire city comes together to build consolidated MICE infrastructure. More than 50 cities across the country could replicate this model,” said Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, India’s tourism minister.
Several regions, including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Delhi, are already working on local bureaus.
“Mumbai offers three major convention and exhibition centres alongside numerous five-star hotels with large conference facilities. In line with the Ministry of Tourism’s mandate, we are planning to establish a city-level MICE Bureau to better coordinate these assets,” Sanjay Khandare, additional chief secretary for Tourism in Maharashtra, told TTGmice.
Alongside the decentralised push, the ICPB has asked the Ministry of Tourism to back the initiative with an aggressive global marketing campaign to reinforce India’s overall standing as a preferred business events destination.
