According to the CEO of the Global Hotel Alliance, Indian travelers are feeling uncomfortable, which are exacerbating the surge in international advanced travel, steadily closing the $100 billion spending gap with China to rewrite the Global Travel Games Manual.
Chris Hartley, CEO of the Global Hotel Alliance (GHA), told Chris Hartley that as visa barriers relax and infrastructure improve, India is expected to become a strong country in the outbound tourism industry. Mint On the sidelines of the 2025 Skift India Forum.
The UAE-based hotel alliance has partnered with some of the top luxury resorts and hotels, and has also bet on the country’s inbound potential, aiming to expand its footprint to 100 properties in the coming years.
Its loyalty program business connects 45 hotel brands across 850 properties worldwide, and bookings in India have increased by double digits, indicating the country’s growing presence in the global hotel landscape.
Exit luxury travel
According to the latest official Ministry of Tourism data, the number of people traveling abroad from India reached 28.2 million in 2023, spanning the top 26 million in 2019.
GHA is a joint venture with hotel asset owners with 30 million members worldwide.
“International travel is strongly driven by leisure consumers who focus primarily on quality travel. “Some markets may rise and fall, but ultimately, India has a huge amount of leisure outbound leisure. ”
He said India and China’s outbound spending “is being bridged” with the $100 billion gap, adding: “We know India is a $100 billion opportunity and so many potential travelers are here”.
Although the two countries are similar in size and are large middle class, he said there are many obstacles to traveling from India. “For years, travelers have had problems with visas and infrastructure, airports and airlines. China is more advanced. But it’s all changing.”
Among Indian travelers booking with GHA, 80% are looking for brands. According to Hartley, nearly 25% of people in this queue are looking for luxury hotels. “This is high relative to other countries. All indicators indicate that Indian consumers want to travel. Leisure is driving.”
Inbound travel potential
Hartley said many hotel companies now recognize the inbound travel potential in India as they see growth in the market and take the example of a secondary hotel, one of its members, which recently opened a flagship hotel in Jaipur. Three to five years from now on, the Alliance hopes to have 100 hotels with 100 to three new brands in the Indian market.
“Hotels in India continue to be an attractive asset class due to the growth of travel, but new hotels are being supplied slowly and no new brands are created overnight,” Hartley said. “But we are seeing more and more owners establishing important brand businesses here, which is a growth opportunity. Last year, our Indian membership grew by 18%.
