Pipeline Report Shows Regional Epicenters Of Hotel Construction

Shanghai, Mexico, Brazil, London and the United Arab Emirates each had the largest active hotel development pipeline in their respective regions, according to the latest data published by Smith Travel Research.

At 957 hotels comprising 232,680 rooms, the Asia/Pacific region's hotel development pipeline stands as the largest in Smith Travel Research's global hotel pipeline report for November, released Dec. 18. Shanghai has the largest portion with 13,057 of those rooms. Other cities in the region with large pipelines include Bangkok, New Delhi and Beijing.

In Europe, where 577 hotels comprising 97,266 rooms are under development, London led in construction with 5,154 rooms. Both Moscow and Berlin also comprised large portions of that pipeline.

The United Arab Emirates accounts for more than 40 percent of the 119,560 rooms in the Middle East and Africa's development pipeline. Saudi Arabia has the second largest pipeline in the region, with 13,664 rooms under development.

Central/South America and the Caribbean/Mexico had the smallest pipelines, at 19,292 rooms and 18,291 rooms, respectively. Brazil accounted for more than 40 percent of the rooms in Central/South America's pipeline, and Mexico accounted for more than 60 percent of the rooms under development in its region's pipeline.