U.S. Leads the World in Hotel Construction During Pandemic
Photo Credit: The U.S. leads the world in hotel construction for 2020, but experts expect years of flat growth ahead (Pictured: a Boston Four Seasons Hotel under construction in 2017). Wikimedia / Anthonyt31201
Skift Take
Don't be fooled by these numbers in the United States. It will be years for hotel construction to once again hit peak levels seen only months ago.
The coronavirus pandemic continues to weigh catastrophically on hotel demand around the world, but that hasn’t kept real estate developers from opening new properties.
The U.S. saw more hotel room openings than any other country in the world so far during the pandemic, according to STR. More than 55,000 new U.S. hotel rooms opened between the beginning of March and end of September. China saw the second-highest number of openings, with more than 23,000. They were followed by Japan (16,304), Germany (9,027), Canada (2,748), and the UK (2,481).
While new hotel supply continued to add to markets around the world during what is shaping up to be the worst year on record for the travel industry, analysts cauti
