"The numbers are very strong, certainly the best this decade,"LE president Patrick Ford tells GlobeSt.com. Ford says the reportrepresents the first time the scope of the European hotelconstruction market has been quantified, making it difficult to sayhow the pace stacks up to previous cycles, but he adds the sheervolume would suggest the number of projects is substantially abovenormal.

"Every developer seems to want to 'catch the curve' this cycle,"adds Ford, who attributes the activity to economic growth,available capital and the resurgent lodging industry. "The next fewyears appear quite opportunistic for lodging development, with onecritical proviso--that there is no substantial change in thepolitical or economic horizon."

According to LE, there are 513 projects being pursued in the 40European countries, 59% of which are already under construction.Those 302 hotels contain 52,580 rooms, while another 74 projectsrepresenting 13,830 rooms are scheduled to break ground during thenext 12 months. The remaining 137 projects that would produce26,989 rooms are described by LE as being "in various stages ofearly planning."