India’s Luxury Hotels Are Finding a New Anchor, and It’s Not Foreign Tourists

India’s luxury hotel market is increasingly being powered by domestic affluent travelers and EIH, the company behind Oberoi Hotels & Resorts, is leaning into it.

“The domestic share has increased substantially,” Vikram Oberoi, managing director and CEO of EIH, said at an earnings call on Friday.

While cautious on global disruptions, Oberoi spoke about the company’s growing confidence in the durability of India’s premium travel demand.

He acknowledged that while April is historically a good month for foreign tourists travelling to India, the Iran war had disrupted bookings, air connectivity had taken a hit, and inbound foreign travel softened.

“Having said that, that’s been more than compensated by strong demand from the domestic market,” he said.

For decades, premium hotels in India relied heavily on interna