NEW YORK— Though the overall consencous at the International Hotel/Motel & Restaurant Show is that attendence is down, some vendors are reporting a higher volume of top level executives looking to make deals. “It’s a lot like HITEC. Foot traffic is down, but the quality of participants is higher,” said Michael DiLeva, program director/Unisys Corp. “Companies are cutting down on the amount of employees they can send, so instead they’re sending higher level executives.” DiLeva added that when business was good in the industry, people began getting complacent and hoteliers let their properties become commoditized. However, now that the economy is faltering and the travel industry is suffering, hotels “are realizing they need to do things to differentiate themselves,” and technology is one way to do that, he said. —Diana M. Rodriguez