Panelists in a session, "Hotel Investment Review" discussed therole of US buyers on the European market. The session speaker, theexecutive vice president of Europe for Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels,Nick Marsh, noted that US buyers are focusing predominantly onhotel properties on the continent, rather than the UnitedKingdom.

While across the Atlantic their colleagues were contemplatingthe impact of the NASDAQ, Dow and S&P woes, in London,professionals talked about the links between a lack of qualityproduct in 2000 and the view of the UK as being at the top of acycle. Marsh said that liquidity increased in 2000, the hoteltrading cycle had become more attractive and market growth providedsafer "outs" for owners. He also noted that the debt markets arerelatively liquid and that there has been a growth in pension fundsaround Europe.

Marsh observed that in the first nine months of the year, thecontinent saw an 82% increase in transactional activity. Heexplained the reasons for this include New York companies ridingthe high of Wall Street's bull market earlier this year werelooking to diversify and expand their portfolios, increasingtransparency, tax reform and the euro dollar. At the conference,61% of the delegates expected transactional activity to increase in2001.