UAE Business: GHA loyalty scheme drives 9-month revenue past $900m – Gulf Digital News

UAE Business: GHA loyalty scheme drives 9-month revenue past $900m – Gulf Digital News

UAE-based Global Hotel Alliance (GHA), the world’s largest alliance of independent hotels brands, has reported a stellar nine-month performance that has exceeded forecasts, with total revenue generated by the 22 million members of its GHA Discovery loyalty programme of over $900 million.

This reflects an increase of 68% on 2021 and reaching 84% of pre-pandemic (2019) levels on a like for like basis.

A combination of higher average rates and a 20% increase in average length of stay globally from January to September versus the same period in 2021, driven by pent-up demand for leisure travel being unleashed, have contributed to the performance boost.

The top three countries for GHA Discovery member stays during the period were all strong leisure destinations: namely, the Maldives, Thailand and the UAE, while the most-visited cities were again Dubai (a further 48% growth in stays over 2021), followed by Singapore and Bangkok.

The most visible signs of a post-pandemic travel rebound were reported for Phuket and Bangkok, Thailand with 535% and 345% growth in revenues respectively compared to 2021, followed by Honolulu, Hawaii with 305% and London, UK, with 300% growth. Despite the ongoing disruption to air travel and the effect of pandemic-related restrictions, more than 60% of