The U.S. hotel development pipeline includes 5,943 hotels with 660,928 rooms, according to the latest Smith Travel Research/Torto Wheaton Research /Dodge Construction Pipeline Report The July figures represent a 0.5 percent decrease in rooms over June and an 18.1 percent increase over July 2007. "The current credit scenario has made it harder to break ground on new hotel projects," says Duane Vinson, vice president, Smith Travel Research. "We have seen a ‘bubble' of projects forming in the final planning stage over the course of the year. It is still unclear if those projects will be built or abandoned."
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