BEIRUT: A survey of the Middle East hotel sector by Ernst & Young indicated that occupancy at hotels in Beirut was 50 percent in the first nine months of 2008, up 13 percent from 37 percent in the same period last year, as reported by Lebanon This Week, the economic publication of the Byblos Bank Group.

In the wake of one of the largest layoff exercises conducted by a private company in Bahamian history, Bahamas Hotel Cate-ring and Allied Workers Union president Roy Colebrook said while he's hoping for the best, the bleak reality of the situation in the country's hotel sector suggests that more layoffs in the industry will probably occur in the next few months.

In the wake of one of the largest layoff exercises conducted by a private company in Bahamian history, Bahamas Hotel Cate-ring and Allied Workers Union president Roy Colebrook said while he's hoping for the best, the bleak reality of the situation in the country's hotel sector suggests that more layoffs in the industry will probably occur in the next few months.

Three days after Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham said in a national address that advance hotel bookings offer no sign that the downturn in the hotel sector will be reversed in the coming months, tourism officials said in a statement yesterday that they have already seen the results of focusing on the country's location in addition to competitive pricing during a test marketing strategy.