As the global recession bears down on capital intensive projects all around the world, the hotel industry is said to be recording the worst slumps in decades in an industry that has thrived on better days. As it is, the plan to therefore embark on construction of new facilities in this era of financial uncertainty could be termed a calculated risk by financial experts.

However, it appears the financial crisis has not deterred the ambitious plans for expansion of existing facilities or chains by hoteliers around the globe going by the spate of hotel launches scheduled for the year.

This year alone, plans have remained on course for the unveiling of top rated and expensive hotels and resorts by major hoteliers on the continents, with Nigeria alone expected to be the home of at least five of these facilities this year .

With global hotel chain, the Radisson Group already lining up a 5-star resort and golf course in Abere, Osogbo, the Osun State capital, and which could see its formal unveiling this year or latest the first quarter of next year, and the South African hotel chain, Legacy Hotels & Resorts, set to register its presence in Nigeria with the opening of The Wheatbaker, Lagos, in June, this year, it appears hoteliers are not letting the global recession to weigh down on their ambitious projects.

In the same vein, the Rezidor Hotel Group, one of the fastest growing hotel chains worldwide plans the official commissioning of the new Park Inn hotel to be sited in the Rock City of Abeokuta , the Ogun State capital, this year.

With 173 rooms, the Park Inn Hotel is expected to welcome the first guests in the fourth quarter of 2010.

Furthermore, the hotel chain, in a bid to register its presence on the African continent, in addition, plans to unveil three more new hotels in Lagos with two more in Abuja, namely: Radisson Blu Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos (250 rooms), the Radisson Blu Hotel, Abuja (200 rooms) and the Park Inn, Abuja (125 rooms) are all scheduled to open in 2012.

While preliminary construction work has taken off in Abere, Osogbo, Chinese contractors for the Radisson Hotel & Golf Course in the area said last year that the project would take close to 18 months to complete and complement the already existing MicCom Hotel $ Golf course.

The hotel, which has among other facilities, an 18-hole Golf course, is jointly owned by the Osun state government and IFC Limited, a private company which has concerns in Nigeria and overseas.

The 120 - room hotel which is designed by Compact Project Consultants, Radisson Oshogbo is crafted to meet today's global hospitality standards.

The Radisson Blu Hotel Abuja and the Park Inn Abuja will be among the best addresses in Abuja, Nigeria's capital city. Both hotels are located at prime sites in the Maitama district, which is also home to various embassies and international companies.

The first class and full service Radisson Blu will offer 200 rooms, a restaurant and several bars (including a cigar bar), a ballroom, and a spa. The young and dynamic mid market hotel Park Inn will comprise 125 spacious rooms, a restaurant, meeting rooms, and leisure facilities including a rooftop pool. Abuja was built mostly in the 1980's and is considered Africa's first master-planned city.

The Radisson Blu Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos will be located on the Atlantic Ocean on Victoria Island, one of the city's most modern commercial areas where banks, petroleum companies and groups like IBM and Hewlett Packard have offices.

Besides 250 rooms which will all offer fabulous sea views, the property will comprise two restaurants, excellent meeting facilities, and leisure areas including a spa and pool. The future landmark will be the second Radisson hotel in Lagos, Nigeria's largest city and commercial centre - complementing the Radisson Blu Hotel, Lagos which welcomes the first guests in 2010.

The group is not only active in South Africa's hot spots Johannesburg and Cape Town where the brands Radisson Blu, Park Inn and Hotel Missoni are developed further - Rezidor looks at capital cities across the whole continent: A pipeline of future openings includes highlights such as the Radisson Blu Hotel, Cairo, Egypt, the Radisson Blu Hotel Tripoli, Libya, the Radisson Blu Hotel Lusaka, Zambia, the Radisson Blu Hotel Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Radisson Blu Hotel Maputo, Mozambique, the Radisson Blu Hotel Nairobi, Kenya, and the Radisson Blu Hotel Luanda, Angola.

On its part, the Park Inn Abeokuta follows recent signings Rezidor has made in the emerging market of Nigeria In addition, Rezidor has also lined up renovation plans for the city's existing Gateway Hotel, Otta, which will be completely refurbished and renovated into a modern Park Inn property with 173 guest rooms, a signature RBG Bar & Grill, meeting space, including a ballroom and auditorium, a swimming pool, a gym and retail shops.

The Wheatbaker, Lagos, which is scheduled for opening this June, follows similar forays into the Nigerian hospitality market in the last three years by southern African-based hotel chains like th African Sun Hotels Group which manages the Obudu Mountain Resort, in Cross River State.

The Legacy Hotels & Resorts would therefore be adding the The Wheatbaker, Ikoyi, to their yearly expanding portfolio of hotel chains in Africa with the June opening of the suites and hotel establishment in the Ikoyi area of Lagos, Nigeria.

Located in the residential axis of the old colonial quarters, The Wheatbaker is, according to the management of the hotel, destined to become Nigeria's premier 5-star boutique hotel, as it targeted at entrenching itself as the top lifestyle and entertainment address with an internationally graded restaurant and delicatessen.

"It will have 70 rooms and suites, with a wheelchair accessible room, conference for 200 persons, wireless connectivity, DStv, digital safe, on-site sure parking, bureau de charge, spa and gymnasium and medical service on call," said Mr. Andrew Asare Boafo, Sales Manager of the Legacy Hotels & Resorts.

Elsewhere in the world, the Trump SoHo, owned by billionaire Donald Trump, a 391-room hotel in Lower Manhattan, is expected to open by the third quarter of the year, towering over its low-rise neighbours with a lot of razzle-dazzle. Also the Viceroy Snowmass in Colorado and the Viceroy Anguilla in the Caribbean, oned by former Playby Kelly Wearstler are scheduled for opening this year.

And Giorgio Armani this year plans to unveil the first in a much-hyped chain of Armani Hotels. Where? In the Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world. The hotel features lots of dark leather and wood and, given Dubai's economic troubles, will stand either as a symbol of rebirth or of hubris.

It would not be the only new hotel in the emirate. One & Only Resorts is set to open a new resort on the tree-shaped Palm Jumeirah Island. So what if there's already a One & Only (the Royal Mirage) overlooking Palm Jumeirah Island? Call it the Two & Only.

Another desert emirate sprouting new hotels is Dubai's oil-rich sister, Abu Dhabi. The biggest surprise there may be the Yas. Designed by Asymptote, the hot architecture firm based in New York, the 499-room Yas Hotel is covered in a shell of diamond-shaped glass panels, like a high-tech veil. Even more surprising, it bridges Abu Dhabi's new Formula One racetrack.

While new hotels in the Middle East are making bold architectural statements, European hotels seem to be slipping into older buildings unobtrusively. In Venice, Philippe Starck designed the modern, 26-room Palazzina Grassi to disappear behind a 15th-century facade. In Amsterdam, the 23-room Canal House Hotel is set to open in a group of charming old houses on the Keizergracht, with canal views and contemporary styling.

In London, the Dean Street Townhouse, a 39-room hotel in what was once the Gargoyle Club, has four-poster beds, hand-painted wallpapers and other retro-chic touches. And in Portugal, the Palácio do Freixo, in Porto, occupies a magnificently restored Baroque palace and former factory next door.

The hotel boom does not seem to have slowed much in New York City. Vikram Chatwal, the hotelier behind the Dream Hotels in New York and Bangkok, is opening the Chatwal in the former Lambs Club on West 44th Street designed by the great Beaux-Arts architect Stanford White. An outpost of the Mondrian Hotel is coming to SoHo, with design based on the 1946 Cocteau Surrealist film "Beauty and the Beast" and the "Top Chef" alum Sam Talbot manning the kitchen.

Also expected to open are the W Downtown, with views of the World Trade Center site, and Fashion 26, a Wyndham Hotel that takes its cue from the Fashion Institute of Technology, its 26th Street neighbor. The Kimpton chain, known for its affordable, boutique-ish hotels, will open the Eventi in the Chelsea neighbourhood. And Patrik Horstmann, the longtime manager of the Gansevoort Hotel, will open the Nolitan, a boutique hotel just north of Little Italy.

Not all the openings are in Manhattan. The 321-room Sheraton Brooklyn, near the MetroTech Center, is expected to open in March, and will be one of the borough's largest new hotels in decades. Elsewhere in the Americas: In Cartagena, Colombia, the Sofitel Santa Clara is opening in a former monastery that dates from 1621. And in Mexico, in another sign of Acapulco's rebirth, Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts, the Singapore-based chain, plans to open the Banyan Tree Cabo Marqués.

Asia, meanwhile, continues to add hotels at a furious pace. In Thailand, Ritz-Carlton Reserve opens Phulay Bay, a 54-villa resort in the southern town of Krabi that offers private butlers and meditation classes taught by monks. Not far away, W Hotels is planning to open the W Retreat Koh Samui.

Anantara, a resort chain based in Bangkok, is opening the Anantara Kihavah Villas in the Maldives, a secluded 82-villa resort with private swimming pools, thatched roofs and an underwater restaurant.

Do not confuse Anantara with Aman - the ne plus ultra chain that is set to open Amanfayun, a spectacular 42-room resort that evokes an ancient Chinese compound, about 20 minutes from Hangzhou, China. It's just one of hundreds of hotels expected to open in China in 2010, including three hotels from Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, in Beijing, Guilin and Shanghai.

Another growth market is India, where Starwood has more than a dozen hotels in the pipeline, including three Aloft hotels and the Westin New Delhi Gurgaon, scheduled to open in July.

The St. Regis is set to open its first hotel in Japan, in the heart of Osaka. In Tokyo, the Tokyu hotel group plans to open the Capital Hotel Tokyu near the Imperial Palace. This is no capsule hotel, the smallest room will be more than 400 square feet.

Singapore is also bucking the global hotel downturn. The Wangz Hotel on Tiong Bahru Road occupies a futuristic cylindrical building (the shape is said to induce relaxation). Even more spectacular, or gaudy, is the Marina Bay Sands, a giant resort composed of three 55-storey towers, with a giant park on their shared roof.

When it opens, the hotel-casino-resort is expected to feature a production of "The Lion King," and restaurants by Mario Batali, Wolfgang Puck and Daniel Boulud.

•Additional report courtesy: NYT