London will lead the way when the European hotels market finally recovers, hotel investment group Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels has predicted

London will lead the way when the European hotels market finally recovers, hotel investment group Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels has predicted. The capital, as the gateway to Europe from the USA, was the first to decline when American tourist and business traffic tailed off sharply after 11 September.

In June, Jones Lang La Salle Hotels surveyed 1,800 hotel investors as part of a biannual survey and found the vast majority were optimistic about the future, with expectations in Europe particularly high.

Since then, evidence from investors has led the group to downgrade its predictions. Investors, it said, were adopting a “wait and see” attitude because the recovery had not been as strong as expected.

Mark Wynne-Smith, executive vice-president Europe, said: “The short-term prospects for the hotel investment markets is probably more difficult to predict now than it has been over the past five years.”

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