STR Global Details International Hotel Pipeline

China, Mexico, Brazil, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates accounted for the largest portion of hotel development activity in April for their respective regions, according to data released Thursday by Smith Travel Research Global.

In Europe, there are 675 hotels totaling 116,935 rooms under development, according to STR Global's April 2010 global pipeline report. About 20 percent of that pipeline is in the United Kingdom. Germany and Russia also have about 16,000 rooms each under development.

Currently, just more than 1,000 hotels, a total of more than 250,000 rooms, are under development in the Asia/Pacific region, and more than half of those are in China, according to the report. Slightly more than 45,000 of the rooms in the pipeline are in India.

A total of 467 hotels, or 128,903 rooms, comprise the development pipeline for the Middle East and Africa. Just under half of those rooms are in the United Arab Emirates, largely in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Saudi Arabia has 15,770 rooms in the pipeline, Egypt has 7,178 rooms and Qatar has 6,041 rooms.

Central and South America's pipeline as of April stood at 134 hotels totaling 21,628 rooms, according to STR Global. Brazil accounted for almost 8,000 of those rooms, though Panama also is seeing significant development, with more than 5,000 rooms under development.

In the Caribbean/Mexico region, 133 hotels, or just over 17,000 rooms, are under development, and more than 10,000 of those rooms are in Mexico, the report indicated. About half of those rooms currently are under construction. The Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico accounted for most of the rest of the region's development pipeline.