At the Global Fintech Fest 2026 in Mumbai, Visa and the Open Network for Digital Commerce announced plans to collaborate on an open digital infrastructure for tourism. The project combines Visa’s payment technologies with ONDC’s network to make travel itineraries, local businesses, and regional experiences universally discoverable.
MUMBAI, India — Global payments technology company Visa and the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) announced on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, their intent to explore a strategic collaboration to make India's tourism offerings easier to discover. Unveiled on the final day of the Global Fintech Fest (GFF) 2026 at the Jio World Centre in Mumbai, the proposed partnership aims to integrate Visa’s global consumer discovery interfaces with ONDC’s decentralized digital rails, addressing longstanding fragmentation across the country’s travel, hospitality, and cultural trade sectors.
Unifying India's Fragmented Travel Ecosystem on Open Rails
The proposed initiative seeks to bring together Visa’s trusted digital commerce channels and ONDC’s open public architecture to create a unified discovery and transaction environment. India’s domestic travel market remains heavily split between global online travel agencies (OTAs) and millions of unlisted micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs)—including independent tour guides, boutique homestays, cultural workshop organizers, and heritage transport operators.
Under the framework presented at GFF 2026, the collaboration will explore using artificial intelligence agents to help travelers plan personalized itineraries and book experiences. Whether an international visitor arriving in New Delhi or a domestic traveler navigating regional circuits, users will be able to discover local attractions, reserve excursions, and pay service providers through interoperable platforms powered by ONDC’s backend infrastructure.
By establishing an open network for tourism, small business operators will no longer need to pay high commission rates to proprietary booking aggregators to secure visibility, enabling local artisans and hospitality providers to connect directly with global demand.
Agentic AI and Cross-Border Digital Public Infrastructure
The alliance builds on a wider industry push toward agentic commerce showcased throughout the 2026 summit. By integrating Visa's tokenization protocols, biometric payment passkeys, and conversational AI tools with ONDC, the entities plan to allow autonomous AI agents to query open networks, find verified activities, and execute secure transactions.
The move also provides dedicated digital rails for outbound and inbound foreign tourists. International credit card acceptance and real-time currency conversion remain common pain points for overseas visitors engaging with small vendors outside metro hubs. Visa’s cross-border payment rails paired with ONDC's seller network aim to bridge this settlement divide, giving foreign visitors friction-free digital purchasing capabilities across rural and secondary tourism hubs.
The initiative aligns with broader efforts supported by government stakeholders to digitize cultural assets under India’s digital public infrastructure (DPI) framework. As of mid-2026, ONDC has expanded to cover over 20 crore consumers and more than 500,000 sellers across 1,000 cities, demonstrating the viability of open protocols beyond retail and grocery delivery.
Official Sources Section
Operational frameworks, strategic priorities, and project scopes cited in this report were disclosed during executive panel presentations and official announcements issued at the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai, operational statements released by Visa India and Open Network for Digital Commerce, alongside tourism public digital data released by the Ministry of Tourism.
Official Statements
Addressing the media and delegates at the Global Fintech Fest 2026, Suresh Sethi, Group Country Manager for India & South Asia at Visa, outlined the transformative role of digital rails in tourism:
"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."
Speaking on behalf of the open network, Hrushikesh Mehta, Chief Business Officer of Financial Services at ONDC, stated:
"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."
Why It Matters
The partnership between Visa and ONDC tackles one of the biggest structural barriers holding back India's travel economy: discovery and payment friction for non-metro service providers. For travelers, centralizing tourism inventory onto open networks reduces the need to download multiple fragmented apps or rely on high-markup middlemen. For small tour operators, local drivers, and regional artisans, open architecture democratizes market access, allowing them to capture higher margins from international and domestic tourism flows. For investors and financial technology providers, deploying agentic AI to manage end-to-end travel booking validates the next commercial phase of India's digital public infrastructure.
Key Facts at a Glance
Partnership Entities: Payments network Visa and state-backed Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC).
Event Platform: Announced on Sept. 11, 2026, at the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai.
Primary Objective: Create an open, interoperable digital ecosystem to discover Indian travel experiences and destinations.
Key Technologies: AI-driven discovery agents, open commerce protocols, and secure global payment settlement rails.
Institutional Support: Aligned with tourism digital track initiatives backed by the Ministry of Tourism.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did Visa and ONDC announce at GFF 2026?
The two organizations announced their intent to collaborate on an open digital network to make Indian travel destinations, experiences, and local tourism vendors easier to discover and book.
How will this collaboration help small travel businesses in India?
By utilizing ONDC’s decentralized network, small businesses such as local tour guides, rural homestays, and handicraft centers can list their offerings directly to travelers without paying heavy aggregator commissions.
Can international tourists use this network?
Yes. The collaboration leverages Visa’s global reach and secure payment rails to enable foreign travelers to search, plan, and purchase regional experiences seamlessly using international payment methods.
What role does artificial intelligence play in this tourism initiative?
The initiative aims to incorporate AI discovery agents that can parse open network data to automatically build itineraries, suggest personalized cultural activities, and initiate verified checkout.
Source: Official announcements from Global Fintech Fest, Visa India, Open Network for Digital Commerce, and the Ministry of Tourism.
