globest.com

As the financing freeze spreads across the globe, hotel development has come to a virtual halt. Even areas that were once considered immune from the global credit crisis, such as the Middle East, are beginning to witness a diminished pipeline. In its Q3 ’08 report on Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Portsmouth, NH-based Lodging Econometrics counted a total construction pipeline of 1,656 projects with 358,067 rooms, a drop of 6% and 4%, respectively, from what it terms a cyclical peak in the second quarter of last year. Of those three separate regions, the Middle East registered the smallest drop-off, a 3% decline in both projects (556 down to 541) and rooms (164,259 down to 159,690) between the second and third quarters of 2008. (The total pipeline calculation includes projects under construction, those scheduled to start in the next 12 months and deals in the early planning stages.)

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