Global Hotel Alliance hails accelerated growth in Q1 as revenues hit $550m

UAE-headquartered Global Hotel Alliance (GHA), the alliance of independent hotels brands, has revealed it has kick-started 2023 with “accelerated growth”, with revenues surpassing $550m (£436m) in Q1. GHA also revealed it has added 16 new hotels to its portfolio and performance figures are currently “meeting or exceeding pre-pandemic levels” in Q1, driven by continued appetite for international leisure travel. It added that international stays also increased strongly, consistently exceeding 2019 figures, with popular leisure destinations driving the robust recovery in room revenue into Q1 2023 including Thailand (91% international stays), the UAE (82%), the Maldives (99%), Caribbean (100%) and Singapore (70%). Meanwhile, it said unsurprisingly, stays by members in China remained mostly domestic, but now travel restrictions have been lifted, the trend is quickly shifting towards international. It added that members who travelled overseas the most were from the US, UK, Russia and France respectively, whereas members in Spain predominantly made domestic trips. As such, cross-brand revenue surged to $61m (£48m) in Q1, with the full-year forecast now upwardly revised to $260m (£206m), up from $168m (£133m) in 2022, which was already 25% ahead of the 2019 number. The group represents a collection of 40 brands with more than 800 hotels in 100 countries, including seven hotels in the UK such as the Corinthia London, Nhow London, The Bristol and Pan Pacific London. GHA CEO Chris Hartley said: “Our Q1 2023 results, which build on the remarkable growth we witnessed in 2022, not only prove that travel has well and truly recovered from the challenges of the pandemic, but demonstrate the strength of the GHA Discovery proposition, which has successfully tapped into what today’s travellers seek from a loyalty programme – flexibility, value and choices that meet their travel and lifestyle needs. “With new brands and hotels continuing to join the alliance, recognising the considerable business benefits that GHA Discovery delivers, in particular unrivalled cross-brand revenue and market share gains, we are confident our Q1 performance will set the pace for the remainder of the year, with GHA in a strong position to leverage surging travel demand from key global markets.”