Top 20 most-read stories of 2021: Hotel development shows signs of recovery

Our most-read stories of 2021 roundup spans the demise of Wilson Associates, the standout schemes in Marriott International’s pipeline and the creation of a luxury resort in the Balkans.

It’s hard to summarise how the global hotel development community fared this year because the truth is that different regions, countries and even individual cities had such different experiences of the pandemic. Some struggled against seemingly never-ending cycles of surges and lockdowns, while others emerged relatively quickly and largely unscathed, often helped by the rapid rollout of vaccinations to the most vulnerable.

A mixed picture for hotel development

This divergence was similarly apparent in hospitality, one of the worst-affected sectors across the board. While a significant number of hotel projects were suspended when the pandemic began last year, a lot of these have since been revived, and countless more have been added – as owners of existing properties respond to lower occupancy rates by pressing ahead with long-overdue refurbishments or conversions to big-name brands, and owners of new schemes put their faith in forecasts that the crisis will end long before they launch.

The stats certainly show encouraging signs of recovery – just last month, we revealed that the combined pipeline of the top six hotel groups has remained remarkably resilient in the face of coronavirus, although admittedly Marriott International and Hilton Worldwide have been much more cautious than their rivals.

Looking beyond Covid

Our top 20 most-read stories of 2020 roundup was dominated by Covid, whereas this year the picture’s very different, with growing demand for general hotel news as well as our data-driven articles about individual projects, cities, countries, brands and groups. The story that generated by far the most traffic on TOPHOTELNEWS in 2021 (and all time, in fact) was our exclusive about the plight of interior design firm Wilson Associates, while our hotlists previewing the world’s most exciting hotel developments and our ‘Project of the Week’ and ‘Project in focus’ stories sharing what the TOPHOTELPROJECTS research team has uncovered about specific schemes also proved popular.

Next year, we’ll continue to cover the very latest planning applications, construction updates and openings, while also delivering exclusive data-led features looking at the state of the industry, the development slates of the world’s top hotel groups and the most promising projects around.

Top 20 most-read stories of 2021

In descending order, here are the 20 articles that generated the most page views on our site in 2021:

1. Breaking news: Wilson Associates files for bankruptcy and liquidation
2. 2021 hotlist: Marriott International’s top five hotel openings
3. Project in focus: Aman Cavtat, Croatia
4. 2021 hotlist: The Middle East’s top five hotel openings
5. Brand overview: More than 150 Hilton-branded hotels in the pipeline
6. Eye-popping property reopens as Singapore’s first ‘garden-in-a-hotel’
7. Project of the Week: Mandarin Oriental Boca Raton, Florida
8. Group overview: Hyatt to add 345 hotels to global portfolio
9. Project of the Week: The St Regis Hotel Longboat Key, Florida
10. Country overview: 42 new hotels to go live in Portugal
11. Project in focus: Club Med Tinley Manor Resort, South Africa
12. 2021 hotlist: IHG’s top five hotel openings
13. Group overview: Accor to open over 500 hotels
14. Project in focus: Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences Cartagena
15. 2021 hotlist: Hilton Worldwide’s top five hotel openings
16. Country overview: More than 150 hotels in the pipeline across India
17. 2021 hotlist: Europe’s top five hotel openings
18. Project of the Week: The St Regis Los Cabos, Mexico
19. City overview: Over 150 new hotels on their way in Dubai
20. 2022 hotlist: Marriott International’s top three openings

Many TOPHOTELNEWS articles draw on exclusive information from the TOPHOTELPROJECTS construction database. This subscription-based product includes details of thousands of hotel projects around the world, along with the key decision-makers behind them. Please note, our data may differ from records held by other organisations. Generally, the database focuses on four- and five-star schemes of significant scale; tracks projects in either the vision, pre-planning, planning, under-construction, pre-opening or newly opened phase; and covers newbuilds, extensions, refurbishments and conversions.

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