EMEA’s hotel pipeline counts have dropped 22 percent by projects since the Q2 2008 peak, according to a new report from Lodging Econometrics (LE). What’s more, cancellations and postponements in the region removed nearly 96,000 rooms from the pipeline last year. LE predicts that these figures will remain high in the near-term as long as the lending environment is at status quo.
Here’s the latest outlook on each region within EMEA:
Europe: Pipeline is at 746 projects/128,113 rooms and represents the sixth straight quarter of declines; 357 projects/65,296 rooms are currently under construction. Eighty-five percent of construction starts and 89 percent of new project announcements have already selected a brand, as the marketing and operating benefits of a brand are increasingly compelling to developers and lenders.
Middle East: Total pipeline counts declined for a sixth consecutive quarter to 451 projects/124,133 rooms in Q4 2009. Project counts are down 19 percent and room counts down 24 percent from the peak. "With mounting concerns over Dubai’s sovereign debt problems and its impact on development and lending throughout the region, further declines in pipeline totals are expected," LE notes. In addition, new openings will rise through 2011, causing new supply to grow at an increasing rate.
Africa: The continent has seen the least amount of damage from the current lending standstill. With 176 projects/33,524 rooms at the end of Q4, project counts in Africa are off by 2 percent and rooms by 9 percent from the pipeline peak. New openings also are expected to be at historic highs through 2010 and 2011.
