ILLUME 2026: The Afternoon That Gave the Global Luxury Travel Trade a New Lens on India
Three fireside chats, four panels, one landmark research reveal — and the most commercially honest conversations the luxury travel trade has had about India in a single room.
JAIPUR, India — 19 Mar 2026: ILLUME 2026, the sixth edition of the immersive knowledge forum by Luxury Tribe, opened the three days of Luxury Tribe India 2026 on 16 March with a single editorial ambition — to give every international partner brand and Indian travel designer in the room the sharpest possible understanding of India’s luxury travel market before two days of buyer meetings began.
The forum gathered international partner brands from 45 countries, India’s most influential travel designers and wedding planners, wealth analysts from Axis Bank and Visa, global hoteliers, and brand directors into a single room for three fireside chats and four panels across the afternoon.
“ILLUME was built to be the place where the luxury travel trade comes to think differently,” said Sheetal Rastogi, Founder of Luxury Tribe. “This morning was about context. It was about helping everyone in this room understand the India market in the fastest and sharpest way possible. What is happening, what is evolving, and what today’s luxury traveller is really seeking. When you walk out of ILLUME, every subsequent conversation goes to the next level.”
The headline reveal: India Luxury Traveller Benchmark 2026
The sixth edition unveiled the platform’s flagship research study — the India Luxury Traveller Benchmark Trend Intelligence Report: ‘Nine Personas Shaping Luxury Travel Behaviour in India’ — co-authored by Khushboo Rastogi and Vishal Jain, mapping India’s affluent traveller across nine distinct persona profiles: five core personas defined by why they travel, and four specialist personas defined by what the trip must protect.
“Travel designers spend their professional lives explaining India to the world,” said Khushboo Rastogi, Co-Founder of Luxury Tribe and co-author of the India Luxury Traveller Benchmark 2026. “We have all had the same conversation many times — a global hotel director or a DMC partner or a luxury brand saying they understand the Indian traveller. Big families, big spenders, vegetarian food. That is not understanding. That is a shortcut. This year we decided to do something about it. We expected to find four, maybe five types of Indian luxury traveller. We found nine. Same passport. Completely different people. The next time an international hospitality brand says they understand the Indian traveller, the trade can now ask — which one.”
The nine personas: The Milestone Producer. The Taste Investor. The Restoration Seeker. The Wild-Luxe Connoisseur. The City-Plus Escapist. The Multi-Gen Principal. The Sovereignty Seeker. The Access Collector. The Diaspora Bridge Traveller.
The Benchmark is already being cited by trade partners globally and moving into industry conversations well beyond the three days in Jaipur. [Read the full Benchmark story →]
The ILLUME programme
The day opened with three fireside chats. The India Conversion Code explored why proposals to Indian affluent clients stall, with panellists Loveleen Multani Arun of Panache World, Anshul Shah of All 4 Season, and Bhakti Taunk of Eastern Travels. The Indian Wedding Opportunity: From Proposals to Weddings to Honeymoons brought together panellists Ekta Saigal Lulla of Weddings by ESL, Jinal Patel of The Doli Diary, and Reena Popat of Bespoke Weddings Abroad to map the cross-border NRI and destination wedding economy. Show Me The Money — the first live budget decode session — was moderated by Sheetal Rastogi and featured Amit Kalssi of Experiential Travel Journeys, Sanjar Imam of Panache World, and Vish Gopalakrishnan of Footprint Holidays, walking delegates through how HNI and UHNI bookings are priced and closed.
Four panels followed, moderated by Sharanjit Leyl, international broadcaster and former BBC anchor, whose sharp editorial hand across the afternoon drew the kind of candid, commercially honest insight the room carried into two days of buyer meetings.
India’s Wealth Map 2026 brought together Sameer Garg, Executive Vice President and Regional Branch Banking Head at Axis Bank, and Sushmit Nath, Head of Visa’s Advisory Practice for India and South Asia, mapping where India’s new wealth is emerging beyond the Delhi-Mumbai-Bengaluru axis — and confirming that 93 percent of India’s current urbanisation is happening outside the top five cities.
New to India, Open for India brought Olivier Mercien-Ferol of Touring Treasures Australia, Silvia Rico of Enigma Peru and Veronica Rodriguez of The Real Thing Spain into a direct conversation on how first-time-India partner brands are calibrating for the affluent Indian client.
Jaipur Unfiltered gathered Geetanjali Kasliwal of Anantaya, Ajaita Shah of Frontier Markets, and Shan Bhatnagar of The Laalee Jaipur to explore what authentic Indian luxury looks like when the city itself is the destination.
Taste as Capital with Chef Vicky Ratnani explored how food has become India’s most exportable cultural currency and why the Indian traveller’s emotional aftertaste now runs through the global culinary conversation.
Voices from the forum
“There are panels. And then there are conversations that shift how an industry thinks. ILLUME 2026 was the second kind.”
— Amit Kalssi, Experiential Travel Journeys, ILLUME 2026 panellist
“The Indian luxury traveller is the most misunderstood high-value client in global hospitality. After a week in Jaipur at ILLUME 2026, there is no disagreement. There is no such thing as the Indian traveller. There are many. The brands that understand the story will win the traveller. The brands that see only the spend will lose them.”
— Luis Miguel Manso Preto, Cheval Collection, reflecting on the Benchmark reveal
“I learned a lot about the Indian market at ILLUME. The persona framework was excellent. I was looking forward to sharing this knowledge with my colleagues. We think we understand certain nationalities and cultures, but we just have a generic vision. With this framework, I now have precise information.”
— Corentin Demariaux, Octola Private Wilderness
“ILLUME gave me the context I needed in one afternoon. By the time meetings began the next day, every single conversation I had was sharper because of what I learned in that room.”
— A first-time partner brand, quoted anonymously in delegate reflections
What comes next
ILLUME returns for its seventh edition on 16 March 2027 in conjunction with Luxury Tribe India 2027. The host destination will be announced in the coming months.
“ILLUME is where the luxury travel trade comes to think differently,” said Sheetal Rastogi. “And the work we have begun with the Benchmark is the work of the decade ahead.”
About ILLUME by Luxury Tribe
ILLUME is the luxury travel trade’s immersive knowledge forum, designed for senior leaders who want to go beyond connection-building into deep exploration of the forces shaping tomorrow’s luxury travel landscape. A Luxury Tribe forum. ILLUME is the annual thought-leadership programme that opens each edition of Luxury Tribe India.
Media enquiries:
Luxury Tribe — Media Relations
Arminder Kaur / Tanvy Aggarwal
Leave a Reply