Analyse one of the industries where the company operates, considering the sytructure of competitio and the competitve forces within the industry. Based on that analysis, discuss the attractiveness of the industry

Industry Analysis of the UK Hotel Industry
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Industry Analysis of the UK Hotel Industry
Industry analysis is a critical tool investor use to gain insights into an industry. Understanding the industry in which a firm operates helps make important investment decisions and facilitates strategic planning for the company. Whitbread Plc. Limited operates in the UK hotel industry, which is dynamic and highly competitive. This analysis report discusses the structure of the competition and competitive forces, information that will be used to assess the attractiveness of the industry.
Structure of the Competition
In the Class Material (materials part 2), the UK industry was estimated to be worth about £5.8 billion in 2021. Observers highlight that competition in this industry is higher than elsewhere in Europe, mainly since almost half of all hotel construction occurs in the UK (Fuchs, 2023). It means that firms in this industry experience hypercompetition, characterized by rapid and intense competitive moves by firms forced to move quickly, build new advantages, and erode the advantages of rivals. Since consumers are sensitive to prices, hyper-competition in the UK hotel industry forces firms to keep adjusting prices to remain competitive. However, there are other ways that firms are creating new advantages, including embracing and fostering sustainability to attract guests.
Based on entry barriers, the UK industry can be described as a top dog industry, where new entrants find it challenging to enter, and incumbents retaliate against the new entrants. The new entrants face high fixed costs in proportion to total costs and a situation where economies of scale are considerable. Therefore, large firms survive better than smaller ones. Therefore, exit barriers are also ever present, especially since investments in assets are hard to sell off.
The current state of the industry life cycle of the UK hotel industry is maturity, where the sales growth rate starts to decline. The demand for products becomes oriented to substituting older products, and competition becomes tougher. In the case of the UK hotel industry, the demand is shifting a