This is sad... considering the reputations of the named hotels are quite big within the tourism sector. I wonder why they feel confident enough to forego paying while all others paid it? To answer your questions on whether this is the best way to handle this, I think unless the hotels were somehow justified to not pay their portion of consortium fees, they should be punished and perhaps have their licenses revoked. Its not like they had losses or anything.. or is it?
BTW - thanks for sharing the link seems ideal for catching up on news clips.