Hotel Price Index - Hotels.com Press Room

such as Hong Kong and Sydney posted double digit priceincreases.We’ve been following what has driven this in the last two HPIreports. Business and convention travel has staged a revival,filling hotels and prompting recovery. Global spending onbusiness travel is projected to grow another 9.2% in 2011,according to the GBTA Foundation’s latest report, withall four BRIC countries outpacing the more developedeconomies.However, as demand has increased, so has supply, whichacts as a brake on prices. There are still nearly 6,000 newhotel projects in development around the world, adding morethan 900,000 hotel rooms. New York in particular is leadingthe way with 20,000 rooms in the construction and planningphases, according to the July 2011 STR Global ConstructionPipeline Report. London tops the European chart with over4,500 additional rooms. Asia-Pacific hotel development isexpanding rapidly with 1,244, and over 300,000 rooms,under construction. 120,000 of these are in China alone.Hoteliers fear a rise in their local currencyAnother feature of this report is how currency exchangerates have created huge variations in whether prices arerising or falling for your pocket. The relative weakness ofthe US Dollar and Pound Sterling is great news for travellerspaying in Euros, Australian Dollars or Swedish Krona butrelatively higher prices in their own countries mean that manyvisitors will have been deterred.Wherever you are, and wherever you are going, the HPIshould have the data you need, as well as some lightermoments. Just which nation spends more when it travelsthan any other? How many square feet can you get foryour money around the world? And just who are the mostadventurous when sampling the local cuisine? For theanswers to all this, and more, read on.2 The Hotel Price Index Review of global hotel prices: Jan-Jun 2011