Middle East & Africa hotel pipeline hits 589

The Middle East and Africa hotel region reported 589 hotels under contract - totalling 137,784 rooms - according to the May 2014 STR Global Construction Pipeline Report.

The under contract data includes projects in the construction, final planning and planning stages, but does not include projects in the unconfirmed stage.

Accounting for the largest portion of rooms under contract was the upper upscale segment, with 35.8% of total rooms, numbering 49,260.

Three other segments each accounted for more than 10 percent of rooms under contract: the upscale segment (19.0 percent with 26,117 rooms); the luxury segment (18.2 percent with 25,044 rooms); and the unaffiliated segment (14.0 percent with 19,327 rooms).

Under construction, the largest portion of rooms (36.2% - 23,570) were in the upper upscale segment. The luxury segment accounted for 20.8% of rooms under construction (13,567), while 20.2% of rooms were in the upscale segment (13,174).

STR Global recently revised the pipeline definitions. What was formerly known as the total active pipeline is now referred to as under contract. The pre-planning phase also has been renamed the unconfirmed phase.