STR Global: C./S. America pipeline Sept. 2010

The Central/South America hotel development pipeline comprises 140 hotels totalling 22,265 rooms, according to the September 2010 STR Global Construction Pipeline Report released this week.

“The Central/South America pipeline is dominated by projects in Brazil”, said Elizabeth Randall, managing director of STR Global. “But while the country’s 60-hotel pipeline tops development in the region, Brazil still lags behind its BRIC counterparts of China (416 projects), India (283 projects) and Russia (77 projects). We, however, expect the pipeline to become stronger due to the upcoming global events of the FIFA World Cup 2014 and the Olympic Games in 2016”.

Among the countries in the region, Brazil reported the most rooms in the total active pipeline (8,144 rooms) and the most rooms in the In Construction phase (3,161 rooms), followed by Panama with 5,728 rooms in the total active pipeline and 3,113 in the In Construction phase. Argentina also ended the month with more than 1,500 rooms in the total active pipeline with 1,613 rooms.

Among the Chain Scale segments, three segments each accounted for more than 15 percent of rooms in the total active pipeline: the Upscale segment (27.4 percent with 6,104 rooms); the Upper Upscale segment (23.7 percent with 5,283 rooms); and the Economy segment (18.6 percent with 4,133 rooms). The Unaffiliated segment accounted for the smallest portion of rooms in the total active pipeline with 4.2 percent and 939 rooms.