Crafting Experiences: Richa Adhia on Eight Continents' Vision for India's Hospitality Future

In Conversation With Richa Adhia, Managing Director, Eight Continents Hotels & Resorts

Year of experience in the hospitality sector. Please share your journey with us.

My professional experience goes beyond the hospitality sector, with a journey spanning multiple global exposures, entrepreneurial ventures, and strategic leadership roles across sectors. I am also involved in several community initiatives through the Richa Adhia Foundation, which endeavours to support the elderly with shelter and access to eye care. This experience taught me that service is a core corporate responsibility as opposed to a mere business function.

The Eight Continents Hotels & Resorts was conceived in 2020, and since then, I’ve had the privilege to lead its expansion across the UK, East Africa and India. Supported by an incredible team, we have effectively positioned ourselves as a dynamic, future-ready hospitality company that favours experience above everything else.

My journey in hospitality has been shaped by an understanding of how India’s travel behaviour has evolved significantly from traditional luxury and business-led formats to today’s experience-first landscape. At Eight Continents, the vision has always been crystal-clear. We are committed to building an ecosystem that’s asset-light, culturally rooted and deeply resonates with our customers. Thus, our primary focus has been on creating brands that are distinct and destination-relevant across segments.

Eight Continents has set an ambitious target of crossing 50 hotels by 2030. What is the strategic roadmap driving this accelerated expansion across India?

Today, we stand at the cusp of a watershed moment. India’s travel landscape continues to evolve at an impressive pace while both scale and aspirations multiply simultaneously. We are witnessing a clear gap emerging between traditional, standardised hospitality and what contemporary travellers seek. Our roadmap to 2030 aims to address that very gap.

Customer expectations are evidently shifting towards experience-led stays, which resemble an actual extension of the destination rather than ordinary, transactional stays. Bearing this in mind, we are focusing on destinations which promise increased accessibility, sustained domestic demand and strong storytelling depth. To execute this expansion, we are prioritising management contracts and brand affiliations over ownership, which will enable us to grow faster with lower balance-sheet exposure. Our 50-hotel objective goes beyond numbers. We want to build a credible, scalable hospitality platform that remains relevant to how India travels today and in future.

It is certainly encouraging to us that experiential travel is no longer a mere trend. With the emphasis placed on tourism infrastructure in the Union Budget 2026, tourism, including experiential travel, has been broadly recognised as one of the chief growth engines for the economy.

Are you prioritising asset-light models, management contracts, owned properties, or a hybrid approach for growth?

Our expansion model is intentionally partnership-led. Rather than capital-heavy ownership, we are focusing on an asset-light model, which will allow us to do what we do best, unlock true potential through operational expertise, brand positioning and revenue optimisation. Management contracts and strategic brand partnerships will form the core of our expansion strategy. The PropCo-OpCo structure will provide the owners with operational flexibility while we ensure consistent brand and service delivery. This approach, we feel, allows agility, faster market entry, and risk optimisation.

Boutique and experience-driven hospitality appears to be gaining strong traction in India. What fundamental shifts are you seeing in traveller preferences?

For Indian travellers, the decision now revolves around how the stay aligns with their identity, mood and purpose, rather than just the room itself. We are seeing a rise in shorter breaks, wellness-driven escapes, immersive experiences and destination-led storytelling - all because travel is becoming more intentional. Guests now expect hotels to reflect the local cuisine, culture and community rather than operating as isolated products. Personalisation, privacy, meaningful engagement and uniqueness outweigh format-driven luxury.

How important are storytelling, design authenticity, and local cultural integration in today’s hospitality landscape?

These factors are no longer just optional differentiators; they are non-negotiable. While storytelling defines emotional recall, design authenticity builds trust, and cultural integration ensures relevance. When they are aligned together thoughtfully, they transform a stay into a memory of a lifetime.

At Eight Continents, we ensure that every brand has a clear narrative. Whether it is heritage-led storytelling, astronomy-driven experiences or contemporary cultural luxury formats, the design framework is destination-rooted. In doing so, our objective is clear. Each property should feel contextual rather than templated, while they are still adhering to strong brand standards to ensure quality and consistency.

Do you see experiential hospitality as a premium niche, or is it becoming mainstream across segments?

I believe experiential hospitality is a direction that the entire industry is moving towards. It is rapidly becoming the baseline expectation across lifestyle, luxury, boutique and extended-stay formats. While the scale and expression may vary across segments, the demand for immersion, authenticity and local relevance is now mainstream. Even the interest of budget-conscious travellers today lies in cultural depth, personalisation and emotional resonance rather than functional stays.

Eight Continents operates multiple sub-brands catering to varied traveller profiles. What was the strategic thinking behind building a diversified brand architecture?

At Eight Continents, we consciously developed differentiated sub-brands within the company, as we understand the importance of strategic clarity for guests and structural flexibility for hotel

owners without adding any operational complexity. All our brands are distinct in nature and have a clearly defined positioning and guest promise. This structure not only helps us to align the right brand with the right asset and destination, but also enables portfolio diversification without brand dilution, allowing the company to cater to varied traveller motivations.

Are you focusing more on Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, leisure circuits, pilgrimage destinations, or business hubs?

Our expansion strategy is demand-led rather than geography-led. Right now, there is a strong emphasis on leisure circuits, emerging secondary and tertiary destinations, and culturally or nature-rich markets. These markets present compelling opportunities due to limited experiential supply and sustained domestic leisure travel. At the same time, we continue to evaluate business hubs and mixed-demand markets where boutique and lifestyle formats can add value alongside traditional supply. We balance aspiration with discipline, guided by long-term demand viability, storytelling potential and improving accessibility. We are aiming to build our presence where experiential hospitality can scale meaningfully rather than simply expanding the footprint.