Visa, ONDC explore tourism discovery tie-up in India

Visa and the Open Network for Digital Commerce have announced plans to explore a collaboration on tourism discovery and digital commerce in India, aimed at helping travellers find experiences and itineraries across the country.

The organisations will examine how Visa's digital commerce experience could work with ONDC's open network model to connect travellers with destinations, local services and smaller tourism businesses.

The proposed arrangement reflects a broader push to use digital platforms to widen access to travel-related services in India. It also adds tourism to ONDC's focus areas alongside retail, logistics and financial services.

Under the plan, the partners will assess ways to make travel discovery easier for domestic and international visitors. That includes how people search for experiences, cities and itineraries, and how those offers could be surfaced through an open digital system.

Visa presented the effort as part of a broader shift in how travellers plan journeys, pointing to growing use of digital tools and agents to curate trips and identify experiences before and during travel.

Suresh Sethi outlined Visa's view of the opportunity in India's tourism market.

"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. 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. 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," said Suresh Sethi, Group Country Manager, India & South Asia, Visa.

ONDC views tourism as a significant opportunity as it expands into more sectors. It said demand from travellers will be essential to making any tourism-focused network effective at scale.

Hrushikesh Mehta said ONDC has already processed more than 500 million lifetime transactions across its network. He added that the organisation has support from the Ministry of Tourism and Culture as it develops its tourism track.

"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. 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," said Hrushikesh Mehta, Chief Business Officer, Financial Services, ONDC.

Tourism focus

The initiative comes as India looks to widen access to tourism offerings beyond established booking channels and major operators. An open network approach could give smaller sellers, local experience providers and regional businesses a clearer path to digital discovery by travellers.

That matters in a market where tourism products are often fragmented across platforms, operators and local networks. Bringing listings, itineraries and experiences into a more interoperable system could help visitors compare options more easily while broadening visibility for merchants that might otherwise struggle to reach demand online.

Open network model

ONDC has positioned itself as digital infrastructure that supports commerce across sectors rather than as a single consumer platform. Its model connects buyers and sellers through a shared network, aiming to give participants more choice in how they transact.

For Visa, the discussions extend its role in travel and payments into an adjacent area centred on discovery. While payments remain a core part of travel spending, the proposed work with ONDC points to broader interest in how travellers find and select services before making a transaction.

The organisations said they will explore how open network principles and digital commerce tools could support tourism participation across destinations, regions and local economies.