Global Hotel Alliance Looks at India to Drive Growth

The Global Hotel Alliance (GHA) last year reached 1 million members in India, growing 53% more than in 2024, in part thanks to its partnership with The Leela.

“We see the young Indian population as the future of travel,” Global Hotel Alliance CEO Chris Hartley said in a press conference on Friday, adding that a huge growth opportunity will come from Indian travelers who are currently taking domestic trips but are “very soon going to become international travelers.”

Twenty years after GHA partnered with The Leela, Hartley says the rewards are still coming, with GHA reporting the number of Indian members of its GHA Discovery platform up 25% year-over-year, while the 16 hotels in the market generated $83 million of revenue.

However, the potential is still untapped. “The Indian outbound market is still 10% of the U.S. outbound market for us,” the GHA CEO said. “So in terms of potential to grow, we see significant further improvements coming.