Will the hotel building boom in Indiana turn into a bust? Some suggest that the number of new hotel properties opening in Indiana borders on overbuilding.

But Jan Bledsoe, executive vice president of the Indiana Hotel & Motel Association, stresses, "You've got to remember that there are places closing at the same time others are opening."

Still, the total number of rooms in Indiana is growing at an explosive rate. The 1997 Indiana Travel & Meeting Guide published by Indiana Business Magazine lists a total of 63,108 hotel, motel and inn units across the state, up from 60,181 the year before.

That growth appears to be fairly evenly spread across the state. And even though ...