The big are getting bigger. Indeed, these top 20 represent over 66% of total group hotel supply globally. This is emphasised by the top 6 groups representing approximately 51% group hotel supply globally, a situation which compounds the paradox that is global hotel supply. At one extreme, the more developed markets of North America are epitomised by "hard" branding and extreme levels of market concentration. The other extreme is illustrated by the emerging, less developed markets where brand and group affiliation is in the minority. Where it does exist, it is generally through domestic affiliations or upper-tier hotels being affiliated to "International" groups in primary "key" locations, with the majority of hotels being "independent" in the truest sense of the word. The European situation is somewhere in the middle. Although once again, it should not be seen as a homogenous mass, with each country having distinct market traits, features and patterns. Indeed, the industry "prophets" of the early to mid Nineties beckoned the onslaught of a branded and highly concentrated hotel supply revolution in the UK and France, but to date, this has not materialised to the extent anticipated.