International hotel brands have longed for some time to gain a foothold in India, but regulatory hurdles have kept that from becoming a reality.
Jesper Palmqvist, area director for the Asia-Pacific region at CoStar's hospitality analytics division STR, says that could finally be changing. International interest in the most populated country in the world could soon open its doors to global hotel brands.
On the Hotel News Now podcast, Palmqvist said streamlined regulations could make brand growth more feasible in India, and the strategies to grow there will likely be one of the few ways — other than boasting a large population — that India resembles China.
"It's hard sometimes to find those similarities between China and India," he said. "It's so different apart from being big, but it's also two markets that don't have many decades of a mature hospitality industry in terms of what we offer."
Palmqvist said that likely means international brands come in with lower segmented offerings at first to gain scale, which could in turn help build brand loyalty for outbound Indian travelers.
Outbound travel could soon become more of a trend in China even as domestic demand remains strong, Palmqvist said. He added European countries that have streamlined the travel process with Chinese travelers are poised to be the first to benefit. He said visa hurdles in the U.S. will likely keep them from once-popular American destinations.
"Even if Chinese [travelers] want to go to America, it's not easy," he said.