Yesterdays San Francisco chronicle reports that the Schrager hotel in SF, the Clift Hotel, has been put into Chapter 11 bankruptcy by its owners seeking to progress a stalled refinancing deal.

Althought the hotel is now enjoying very healthy occupancy levels,San Francisco tourism and travel was badly hit by events since 9/11. This period of loss has hit the hotel hard, and whilst propects for the property are good the accumulated losses are causing problems sufficient to warrant Chapter 11 protection from creditors.

Ian Schrager Hotels are not the only group reeling from the effects of the drop in turnover experienced by the Industry over the last few years. The position of Le Meridien group is still under negotiation with various parties, as it has been for some months now with little sign of a resolution being achieved. Various other groups are looking to property sales to recover losses. Other groups, with heavy borrowings or impending critical refurbishment needs are, as the financiers would express it, 'in play'. Latest of these to be subject to reported negotiations is the ailing UK group Queens Moat.

Despite these ripples, most surveys through North America, Europe and Asia show rising volumes of visitors as the apparently insatiable appetite for foreign travel coninues to drive tourist numbers higher worldwide. Clear indications of this trend, apart from the innumerable industry surveys, are the rising numbers of airlines, particularly in the Far East, adding additional services or resurrecting suspended air routes in response to growing deamnd.