Heavily reliant on their manufacturing and exporting industries, Asian economies are seeing sizable, even historic, contraction, as global demand for goods produced in the region has plummeted. Several countries, including Japan, Taiwan and Thailand, reported negative GDP growth in Q4 2008. The blockbuster economies of China and India still expect positive GDP growth this year, however the rate of growth will be significantly slower, falling to rates not seen since earlier in the decade. LE expects the macroeconomic indicators to continue trending downward into 2010.

Europe has the largest Pipeline in EMEA with 971 projects/161,236 rooms at the end of Q4 2008. The Middle East's Total Pipeline has 503 projects/147,488 rooms. Africa's totals 171 projects/35,267 rooms. As in other parts of the world, the Pipelines in these regions are heavily weighted for the near-term. 50% of Europe's projects and 53% of projects in both the Middle East and Africa are already Under Construction. This is due to the rush by developers during Q4 2007 and Q1 2008 and through the fall in the Middle East to get projects in the ground before the availability of lending was further reduced.

With Canada’s economy and banking system not as seriously impacted by the global economic crisis, developer sentiment is less negative than in the rest of the Americas. Migration of projects up the Pipeline toward Construction has remained strong. Construction Starts in Q4 increased 14% QoQ to 19 projects/2,153 rooms. Cancellations/Postponements may be high at 23 projects/4,094 rooms, however many are larger (including two hotels greater than 500 rooms) high-end projects for which financing is not easily accessible. New Project Announcements into the Pipeline, at 40 projects/4,844 rooms, are at a five-quarter high. Most of the new announcements are in the select service segments.