According to Mark Hoplamazian, president and CEO of Hyatt Hotels Corp., 2011 was also a busy year for Hyatt and he expects demand to continue. But he is keeping a close watch on group sales and keeping tabs on corporate confidence. He is also keeping an eye on Europe.

“Europe remains an area of stress and concern,” explained Hoplamazian. “The current impact on business today has been modest, but when I start trying to parse out the how and why and where in terms of a ‘recession in Europe’ we don’t know how severe it will be,” he said.

He continued that one of the key issues is that leisure demand will be impacted, and European bank’s balance sheets will get more strained. “Lending will become more difficult if the sovereign debt situation gets worse,” he said.

Hoplamazian added that “The key assets in the key markets will likely still find buyers,” but “the one thing we learned in 2008 and 2009 is the interconnectedness across the world, which is true of European sovereign debt.”

In terms of the bigger picture, John Silvia, chief economist of Wells Fargo Securities, said that the US economy is improving, rebounding, and recovering, just not quite as strong as it has been in the past. “We have sustained economic growth in the US, but don’t expect a boom,” Silvia said. “We are still cautious on the American consumer and we aren’t quite getting the high’s we have had in the previous economic cycle.”

According to Silvia, the economy will continue to improve in 2012, however he pointed out that in about six months, the questions will come up about policy. “People will start to get antsy and start questioning what will happen in 2013,” he said.