Analysts at Lodging Econometrics (LE) report that Europe’s hotel construction pipeline continues its robust up-swing in 2019 with 1,670 projects/254,600 rooms, a remarkable 22% increase in projects and 19% increase in rooms year-over-year (YOY).
There has been an optimistic, upward trend in the European service and construction sectors, which is off-setting the weak outlook for exports and the on-going short-falls in manufacturing. New construction is being positively impacted by accommodative lending policies. Unemployment is at a 19-year low, yet an economic slowdown is still predicted for 2019.
There are 844 projects/133,620 rooms currently under construction and 480 projects/72,588 rooms planning to start construction in the next 12 months, both at record highs. The early planning stage stands at 346 projects/48,392 rooms, slightly off its record high at 2018 year-end.
New project announcements with 360 projects/50,337 rooms and construction starts with 223 projects/33,973 rooms have both reached all-time highs, both quarterly-over-quarter and on a rolling-four quarter basis. As a result of these positive pipeline trends, the LE forecast for new hotel openings will continue to soar with 390 new hotels/53,241 rooms anticipated to open in 2019 and a further 426 new hotels/61,490 rooms in 2020, a new record high.
Europe’s leading countries in the construction pipeline are Germany, which is at an all-time high, with 319 projects/57,152 rooms and the United Kingdom with 261 projects/37,910 rooms, marginally trailing the record set in 2018. Following are France and Portugal, both also at record highs, with 188 projects/22,537 rooms and 121 projects/12,190 rooms, respectively. Next is Poland with 91 projects/13,748 rooms.
The cities with the largest pipelines are London with 78 projects/13,285 rooms, Paris with 60 projects/9,255 rooms, Dusseldorf with 53 projects/10,347 rooms, Lisbon with 39 projects/3,457 rooms, and Hamburg with 31 projects/6,101 rooms.
Source: hospitalitynet.org
