PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Lodging Econometrics released its year-end Global Construction Pipeline Trend Report, which compiles hotel construction pipeline counts for every country and city around the world. At the close of 2019, LE analysts report that the total global construction pipeline hit record highs with 15,000 projects totaling 2,454,954 rooms—an 11 percent increase in projects and an 8 percent increase in rooms year-over-year (YOY).
The global pipeline has been ascending for nine consecutive years after reaching its cyclical low (by rooms) in 2010. Four of the seven regions of the world continue to have pipelines trending upward compared to the previous year, with the exceptions being Latin America, Africa, and (with counts essentially even) the Middle East.
A total of 6,859 hotel projects and 1,217,662 rooms are currently under construction worldwide. The number of projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months (4,533 projects/654,474 rooms) and the number in the early planning stage (3,608 projects/582,818 rooms) are at all-time highs.
The country with the largest number of hotel projects in the pipeline is the United States with 5,748 projects/708,898 rooms, slightly short of its all-time high of 5,883 projects/785,547 rooms set in the second quarter of 2008. China follows, reaching a new all-time high with 3,526 projects/643,435 rooms. The United States accounts for 38 percent of projects in the total global construction pipeline while China accounts for 24 percent; 62 percent of all hotel projects are concentrated in these two countries. Distantly following are Indonesia with 367 projects/60,354 rooms, the United Kingdom with 346 projects/49,651 rooms, and Germany the with 339 projects/61,836 rooms.
Around the world, the cities with the largest pipeline counts are Los Angeles with 168 projects/28,501 rooms, Dallas with 160 projects/19,787 rooms, and New York with 158 projects/25,825 rooms. Dubai follows with 152 projects/46,941 rooms and then Chengdu, China with 134 projects/27,864 rooms.
The leading franchise companies in the global construction pipeline by project count are Marriott International with 2,799 projects/471,843 rooms, Hilton Worldwide with 2,414 projects/354,515 rooms, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) with 1,777 projects/263,710 rooms, and Accor with 912 projects/161,868 rooms. These four companies account for 53 percent of all projects in the global hotel construction pipeline.
Brands leading in the pipeline for each of these companies are Marriott’s Fairfield Inn with 431 projects/49,917 rooms, Hampton by Hilton with 744 projects/98,206 rooms, IHG’s Holiday Inn Express with 712 projects/90,254 rooms, and Accor’s Ibis Brands with 338 projects/47,477 rooms.
Throughout 2019, the world opened a total of 3,159 new hotels/446,911 rooms. As a result of the current global pipeline being at an all-time high, LE forecasts that new hotel openings will continue to climb with 3,298 hotels expected to open in 2020. In 2021, new openings are forecast to accelerate further to 3,415 hotels.
LE noted that the global outbreak of COVID-19 did not impact these fourth quarter 2019 totals.
