Number of New U.S. Hotel Brand Launches Highest in 17 Years
PricewaterhouseCoopers Reports
NEW YORK, NY, March 15, 2007. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, there were a total of 24 new hotel brand launches in the U.S. in 2005 and 2006, which is the largest number of brand introductions in a two-year period since 1989. The new brand launches represented non-U.S. brands affiliating with hotels in the U.S., new concepts targeted at Gen-Xers and Millennials, independent brands, brands affiliated with established lodging companies and brands at many price levels.
"Accelerating demand, the increasing representation and influence of Gen-Xers and Millennials, globalization and the trend for major brands to offer a range of service and price levels -- all occurring at the same time that supply growth is accelerating -- is resulting in a record number of brand introductions," explains Bjorn Hanson, Ph.D., and principal in PricewaterhouseCoopers' Hospitality & Leisure practice.
Among the brands introduced in the US in 2005 and 2006, ten brands were introduced by new companies, two brands were international brands new to the US lodging market and one was a brand extension. Further, four of the nine brands introduced in 2006 were primarily targeted towards the Gen X population.
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