'West Asia conflict may hit summer travel, but India remains hospitality’s biggest long-term prize'

Dubai-based company runs the world’s largest hotel loyalty programme for independent hotels, bringing together over 50 brands and 950 hotels across 100 countries. Hartley said that while the war may weigh on short-term bookings, India’s outbound market remains largely untapped.Travel to West Asia is still disrupted and could shift flows in the near term, he said, but the broader trajectory of demand is unlikely to change. “The question now is really if it can be resolved in April.

If yes, then hotels have a chance to recover by the latter part of the year. We don't expect much business to come till May. As a result, there will be a very busy October-December period, where Dubai will be crammed," Hartley, who was in India recently, told Mint.Some travel demand from India and elsewhere may temporarily move away from West Asia and Europe if disruptions persist, he added, but he does not believe it will vanish.

“What the covid-19 pandemic taught us was that the travel industry has become quicker to react, and consumers quicker to return. People’s perception of risk has also changed,” he said.The West Asia conflict has begun to disrupt leisure travel, though the immediate impact is showing up more in aviation than in tourism volumes. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said on 2 March that the latest hostilities had introduced uncertainty into traffic and fuel costs, putting pressure on a region that serves as a key global aviation hub.Early indicators still point to resilience.