MakeMyTrip And Ministry Of Tourism Launch 350+ Guided Experiences Across India

MakeMyTrip has partnered with the Ministry of Tourism to bring 350 new experiences across 60-plus Indian cities. From tea-tasting in Palampur and block-printing workshops in Jaipur to heritage walks, cycling tours and local neighbourhood experiences, you can now explore a new city through your favourite experiences, discoverable through a single portal. These experiences have gone live from August 15, with the catalogue expected to expand further.

The development addresses a familiar gap in domestic travel. While flights, hotels and major attractions can be planned digitally, smaller guided experiences have often depended on word of mouth or arrangements made after arrival. By putting local guides, cultural activities and specialised tours into an advance-booking system, the partnership aims to make these experiences easier to discover and incorporate into an itinerary. The initiative is aligned with the government's Incredible India and Dekho Apna Desh campaigns.

A National Catalogue Built Around Local Experiences

The new collection covers heritage, culture, spirituality, cuisine, festivals and monuments, with formats ranging from walking and cycling tours to vehicle-based and multi-day experiences. The scale is significant given this is a category that has traditionally been fragmented; travellers can now browse and book experiences in more than 60 cities through a platform they may already use for other parts of their trip.

The catalogue includes a Tea Tasting Session through Palampur's tea estates, a heritage play and kite-flying experience in Agra, and the Mussoorie Ghost's Walk through colonial-era lanes after dark. In Varanasi, the Sacred Ganges Immersion experience combines a sunrise by the Ganges with the evening Aarti. Elsewhere, travellers can join a Kolkata street photography tour, visit a local home in Saligao, Goa, for a village walk and high tea, or take part in a hands-on block-printing session with artisans in Jaipur.

The selection also extends to experiences that sit outside conventional sightseeing. These include an electric cycle ride through Salvador Do Mundo in Goa and a Mumbai tour covering Dharavi, Dhobi Ghat, dabbawallas and India Gateway. The initiative forms part of MakeMyTrip's wider tours and attractions business, which already includes museums, heritage walks, treks, safaris and cultural sites.

Why Putting Local Guides Online Matters

The partnership comes at a time when travel is moving beyond simply selecting destinations and accommodation. For many Indian cities, the difficulty has not been a shortage of things to do but the lack of a unified platform to find and arrange smaller, locally led experiences before a trip. The new platform changes that discovery process by moving activities that were often organised informally into a searchable and bookable catalogue.

That shift also has implications for the people providing these experiences. The initiative is intended to give local guides and communities a more direct route to potential travellers rather than relying entirely on hotel recommendations, personal networks or on-arrival arrangements. For travellers, the benefit is greater visibility before departure; for guides and local operators, digital distribution could make it easier to reach visitors planning their trips from elsewhere.

The government partnership places the initiative within the broader Incredible India and Dekho Apna Desh push to encourage travellers to engage with India's cultural and regional diversity. Rather than creating a new category of tourism, the programme is formalising and digitising experiences that already exist, from craft workshops and heritage walks to food, spirituality and outdoor activities.

What Travellers Can Book

The tours became available from August 15, giving travellers the option of adding a locally led experience while planning a wider trip. With prices beginning at INR 500, the catalogue includes both short activities and longer formats, although the available duration, inclusions and pricing will vary by experience. The catalogue is intended to expand, so the current selection is not necessarily its final size.

For itinerary planning, the range means these experiences can work as alternatives to conventional sightseeing rather than necessarily requiring a separate trip. A visitor to Jaipur, for example, can add a block-printing session to a heritage-focused itinerary, while someone in Palampur can combine tea tasting with a wider visit to the region. In Varanasi, the Ganges experience connects two parts of the day, while Goa's cycling and village experiences offer ways to explore beyond its more familiar beach-focused tourism.

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