Tourism Discovery Across India Comes Into Focus as Visa and ONDC Explore Collaboration

Suresh Sethi and Hrushikesh Mehta outlined plans at Global Fintech Festival 2026 to examine how open digital infrastructure can connect travellers with destinations, itineraries, experiences and local businesses

Visa and the Open Network for Digital Commerce, ONDC, have announced their intent to explore a collaboration focused on tourism discovery and digital commerce experiences across India.
The announcement was made at Global Fintech Festival 2026, where the two organisations outlined plans to examine how Visa’s digital commerce and discovery capabilities could work with ONDC’s open network infrastructure.
The proposed collaboration aims to simplify how travellers find experiences, itineraries and tourism offerings while connecting them with destinations and local businesses across the country.
The exploration will also consider how open network principles, digital commerce and technology can support tourism participation across different destinations, regions and local economies.

Speaking at Global Fintech Festival 2026, Suresh Sethi, Group Country Manager, India and South Asia, Visa, said, “India has taken a very futuristic approach in terms of how we can digitally connect people, and that is on open networks. When a global Indian is travelling out, or when somebody is coming from overseas, you are really looking for places where you can discover the experiences you can get in India.”
Sethi also highlighted the growing use of agents for curating journeys and helping travellers discover experiences.

He said, “We also see that a lot of agents are now being used to curate and create journeys, helping people discover experiences. India has its own homegrown digital public infrastructure creating opportunities for digital commerce, and we realise that tourism can be a very important asset where ONDC can serve as the digital infrastructure for tourism in the country.”
The proposed approach could bring different aspects of tourism discovery together while creating opportunities for smaller businesses operating within the tourism ecosystem.
Sethi added, “Everything related to tourism, whether discovering experiences, cities or travel itineraries, as well as small and medium businesses of the ecosystem can potentially be housed in one place. ONDC brings the trust of a homegrown India digital public infrastructure, while Visa brings trusted discovery experiences. The two coming together can create a superlative experience for anybody looking at coming to India as a destination. We are delighted to be exploring this opportunity with ONDC.”

ONDC said tourism represents another area where its open network model could be applied to connect buyers with sellers.
Hrushikesh Mehta, Chief Business Officer, Financial Services, ONDC, said, “At ONDC, our North Star is creating markets for sellers and choice for buyers, whether it is in retail, financial services, logistics or tourism. We have facilitated more than 500 million lifetime transactions and continue to expand the network across sectors.”
According to Mehta, ONDC has support from the Ministry of Tourism and Culture for developing its tourism track, while participation on the demand side will also be important.

He said, “Tourism is an important opportunity for us. We have support from the Ministry of Tourism and Culture to help build the tourism track and help drive tourism in the country. But you also need strong demand-side participation. We are very keen to work with Visa to see what we can do together to make that happen and help connect travellers with the diverse experiences that India has to offer.”
Visa and ONDC will evaluate potential opportunities involving open networks, digital innovation and commerce as part of the exploration.
The proposed collaboration will also examine how a digital ecosystem could help travellers discover tourism offerings across regions while increasing opportunities for destinations and local businesses to participate in digital commerce.

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