London. In 2004 the Middle East was the second-fastest growing region after China. The latest survey of HVS International looks inside. This year the consultancy has pioneered a profitability assessment of the Middle East hotel industry - an assessment of GOPPAR. The results were published first this week in Dubai.

Chicago. The Hyatt Corporation will operate more casino hotels: In Las Vegas the chain will be involved in a new 2,700 hotel and condo-hotel residences of The Cosmopolitan Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas strip. This Hyatt hotel will be the second Hyatt in town and branded as a Grand Hyatt. 

Madrid. Italy's biggest insurance company and an Italian investment company will take a stake in the Spanish hotel group HN Hoteles, as became public at the company's annual general meeting in Madrid last week. The business is developing well in Germany.

Hong Kong. Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts will expand in India and in Inner Mongolia. New contracts are just signed and announced.

Moscow. Four Seasons Hotels Inc. confirmed that it has signed an agreement to manage a new hotel on the site of the former Hotel Moskva in Moscow, Russia.

London. For the second year in a row, Venice was the best performing market in 2004 in terms of revenue per available room according to the HotelBenchmark Global Ranking Index. The GRI compares the performance of 165 global cities outside North America on an annual basis in terms of RevPar and occupancy.  

Tokyo. JAL Hotels Co., Ltd., operator of the Nikko Hotels International group of luxury international hotels, continues to expand in the booming Chinese market with the addition of Dalian and Tianjin hotels. Other cities will follow.