India is a $100 billion travel opportunity, says Global Hotel Alliance CEO

With visa hurdles easing and infrastructure improving, India is poised to become a powerhouse in outbound tourism, Chris Hartley, CEO of Global Hotel Alliance (GHA), told Mint on the sidelines of the Skift India Forum 2025.

The UAE-based hotel alliance, which has tie-ups with some of the top luxury resorts and hotels, is also betting on the country’s inbound potential, aiming to expand its footprint to 100 properties over the next few years.

Its loyalty programme business, which connects 45 hotel brands across 850 properties worldwide, is seeing double-digit growth in bookings from India, signalling the country’s growing clout in the global hospitality landscape.

Outbound luxury travel

The number of people travelling out of India, according to the latest official tourism ministry data, reached 28.2 million in 2023, crossing the pre-pandemic levels of 26 million in 2019.

The GHA, a joint venture of hotel asset owners, has 30 million members worldwide across brands like Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts, Corinthia Hotels, Kempinski Hotels, Oracle and Pan Pacific Hotels Group.

“International travel is being driven strongly by leisure consumers, who are mainly focusing on premium travel. Travellers are disconnected entirely from short-term economic downturns,” said Hartley. “Some markets may be going up and down, but ultimately, India has such a huge growth in sheer numbers of leisure outbound leisure.”

The $100-billion gap between India and China’s outbound spending “is being bridged”, he said, adding that “we know India is a $100 billion opportunity with so many potential travellers out of here”.

While the two countries are similar in size by market and a large middle class, he said there were many obstacles to outbound travel from India. “For years, travellers had issues with visas and infrastructure, airports and airlines. China was more advanced. But that is all changing.”

Of the Indian travellers booking with GHA, 80% is looking for brands; within this cohort, nearly 25% is looking for luxury hotels, according to Hartley. “This is quite high relative to other countries. All indicators are that the Indian consumer wants to travel. Leisure is driving the way.”

Inbound travel potential

Many hotel companies also now recognize the inbound travel potential into India as they are seeing growth in the market, Hartley said, citing the example of Minor Hotels, one of its members, which recently launched its flagship hotel in Jaipur. Three to five years from now, the alliance hopes to have 100 hotels across two to three new brands in the Indian market.

“Hotels in India continue to be an attractive asset class because of the growth of travel, but the new supply of hotels is slow, and new brands are not being created overnight,” said Hartley. “But we see more and more owners building a significant brand presence here, and that is a growth opportunity. Last year, our India memberships grew 18%.”