The inaugural edition of Melange, a travel trade show that is positioned as a hybrid between a travel exhibition and a roadshow, concluded successfully in Mumbai as the organisers as well as the exhibitors say the show exceeded their expectations.

Sameer Karnani

The two-day debut edition of the show, that was held at Jio World Convention Centre, a high-end convention centre in Bandra Kurla Complex in north-western suburbs of Mumbai, began on Thursday, with well over 230 exhibitors and more than 3,000 select visitors participating.

“We will certainly be back with another edition as the response has been overwhelming and exceeding our expectations. We may tweak the format a bit, make it a three-day event, perhaps, but keep a cap on the number of visitors and the exhibitors as our focus is quality, not quantity,’’ Sameer Karnani, Managing Director of Arunodaya Travels and co-founder of MTF Events which organised the show, tells India Outbound.

Pradeep Saboo

“For us this is a thing of passion, not business. We conceived the show as we had participated in various travel shows, both as exhibitors and visitors. So, we had seen the pain points experienced by the exhibitors, specially smaller ones, and the visitors. Our concept is to remove those pain points and create a show that will deliver exactly what every participant expects,’’ Pradeep Saboo, Director of Guideline Travels and Holidays & co-founder of MTF Events, tells India Outbound.

Saboo says that the event will be bigger in 2025, when it returns for its second edition on September 20-21, as this year the event was mounted in a very short time span. “When we decided to go ahead for this year’s event, we had just a few months in hand and most of our potential partners had already allocated their budgets. But we have already received a number of commitments that they would be there the next year. So the event will be bigger in 2025, though we would still retain a firm control on the number of exhibitors and the visitors or buyers to ensure that everyone gets quality output from their participation,’’ Saboo adds.

Backing Joshi and Saboo are a number of exhibitors who participated in the inaugural edition. Rajesh Kakade is Founder and Global Director of Red Carpet Travels, a Mumbai-based Destination Management Company that participated in the show. Kakade says his expectations from the show were exceeded on Day 1 itself.

The team of Red Carpet Travels celebrates achieving its target registrations at Melange

Rajesh Kakade

“I never expected, honestly, such outcomes. I wanted to work with organisers because I know the team organising it and that they are the go-getter type and I knew they will ensure that I will find what I came here. But I was not expecting these kind of people coming in. The response was tremendous. They have ensured that the show attracts a large number of high quality buyers from Tier 1 cities as well as from South Indian cities. We managed to get over 300 registrations here and a lot  more people who did not know Red Carpet Travels and when we were talking to the agents, we realised that they had a potential and already run the kind of business to support us, even in Europe, USA, Canada and Australia. Now, we have achieved a total of 1,000 registrations, including those made here,’’ says Kakade.

Chirag Agarwal, co-founder of TravClan, a B2B travel platform, says that for a first edition, Melange was a ‘decent’ show and that unlike some of the larger shows, the cost of participation was more economical.

Chirag Agrawal

“I like the fact that they have tried to include all the costs for exhibitors in their package cost and hence there is no other cost associated with participation and we as exhibitors do not have to worry about logistics like organising food for our team. In terms of meetings, the show was engaging and the organisers have innovated also by installing elements like a photo booth, which attracted people and many of our own team members also used,’’ Agarwal tells India Outbound.

Pranav Kapadia of Global Destinations, a destination marketing and representation firm, which also participated in the debut show of Melange, says he found almost all the meetings to be extremely productive.

Pranav Kapadia

“It is an amazing event for two reasons. One is that the people behind the show are themselves into the business and hence they understand both sides of the coin. The second plus was that the buyer registration was filtered very, very well and so it was different from other shows where we meet a couple of thousand buyers and then sitting and filtering over time once we are back in the office and deciding who we need to connect with. But here, the filtration had already been carried out and we have had very high quality meetings with the buyers,’’ Kapadia tells India Outbound.

Kapadia adds that for his company, the return on investment was already over 60 pc on Day 1 itself.

Alpa Jani, CEO and Founder, of Ace Connect, a travel and hospitality consultancy, says she also found the show to be very productive. “I think it has been very, very fruitful considering the fact that a lot of people still don’t know Destination Morocco and there was a lot of education done towards the destination and the experience that Morocco as a destination has,’’ Jani tells India Outbound.

Alpa Jani

Jani says that she liked the fact that the show was not very crowded as it allowed meaningful exchanges. “Melange really gives us the opportunity and the time to speak to people at length and I like the fact it was not extremely busy and it was not just exchanging of visiting cards as there were many fruitful discussions. That is what I liked about Melange,’’ she says.

Dipti Adhia, Director of Discover the World-India, says that her company has come back to a trade show after a long while as it used to participate in some shows before 2019.

Dipti Adhia

“The entire show is very different. It is much better organised than many other shows in India. I feel this has much more value because we got a lot of time to interact with the partners and, you know, the way they have been scheduling the meetings, they have invited potential buyers from all over India, instead of keeping it focussed on Mumbai. So I think that is really helping us,’’ Adhia tells India Outbound.

Shefali Gupta, Director of Amigo Travels, a Mumbai-based travel firm specialising in outbound travel, also agrees that Melange was a productive show for her.

Shefali Gupta

“It is a very potent, well-curated event. Things which were kept in mind like the quality of buyers, quality of exhibitors as well as the overall tone and general feel of the event, all of it has been taken care of. And up until now, all the people we have met seem to be the right kind. Over the years, we have been exhibiting and participating under various categories. Most of the trade shows have now become all about numbers. So it is not always quality, it is always quantity and then quality. Here, at least this year, it seems more about quality and then quantity,’’ Gupta adds.

With almost every buyer and exhibitor finding the show to be very productive and useful, Saboo and Karnani of MTF Events seem to have hit a gold mine as most of the exhibitors tell India Outbound that they would certainly be there the next time as well.