GLOBAL Hotel Alliance (GHA) last week welcomed the entry of two new member brands – Thon Hotels and Glo Hotels – from the Nordic region, bringing the number of member hotels in Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark to 120.
Thon Hotels is based in Oslo and part of the Olav Thon Group. Established in 1989, it is the third largest hotel chain in Norway with a portfolio of 64 hotels in Norway, five in Belgium, one in the Netherlands and one in Sweden.
The brand targets business and convention travellers specifically, but its properties in the Arctic Circle are popular with leisure travellers as well. Thon Hotels’ membership will commence within the next few months.
Glo Hotels, with headquarters in Helsinki, is part of The Kämp Group. It has four hotels in Helsinki, marking the first time GHA is represented in Finland.
Aarne Hallama, CEO of The Kämp Group, commented: “We are a well-known, local Finnish lifestyle brand and we need access to our key feeder markets in Sweden, Russia, the UK and Germany; GHA membership will help us enormously to reach customers in these markets, which we cannot do effectively alone.”
Chris Hartley, CEO of GHA, noted that the alliance recently celebrated its 10th anniversary.
“These two new brands bring the alliance to 425 hotels, and we are gradually gaining strength and recognition in key regional markets, such as the Nordics. This in turn is helping us drive more business to our member brands, so everyone in the alliance benefits from our growth because of the collaborative nature of our business, and in particular our sharing four million customers through our loyalty programme, GHA Discovery,” he said.
“It’s an exciting year for the alliance, and we expect more brands to join in the coming months, as independent players continue to look at how they can compete for market share with the mega-chains; and we’re providing that solution.”
