MONTH IN REVIEW
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CRIME
National charity
helps hotel
and licensing
industry to spot
child grooming
Charity NWG Network has been
supporting hotels and licensed
premises across the country to
make staff aware of signs of child
sexual grooming.
The charity’s campaign ‘Say
Something if you See Something’ was
primarily developed to help the hotel,
licensing and taxi industries to be
more aware of child sexual exploitation
(CSE), how it could affect business, and
what they need to do if they recognise
that someone is being exploited on
their premises.
The campaign resources have already
been downloaded over 50,000 times
by many different hotel chains, local
authority licensing departments and a
number of police forces in the UK.
The work done in South Yorkshire,
via its Local Safeguarding Children’s
Board and police, is already seeing
success with potential offenders being
apprehended, and hotel and pub staff
more alert to the warning signs.
Kevin Murphy, NWG’s response
unit lead for licensing and the hotel
industry, said: “The charity has already
developed strong links with several
major hotel chains as well as the
Federation of Small Businesses.
“By using our resources effectively,
with both their staff and customers,
it is not only helping to keep children
and vulnerable adu lts safe but is
also protecting the reputations of
businesses.”
NWG has worked closely with many
of the multi-agency Local Safeguarding
Children’s Boards with the Say
Something campaign in their areas,
allowing them to monitor and report
on CSE.
October 2017
ECONOMY
Hotel demand
remains strong
for ‘destination
UK’, Expedia says
UK hoteliers enjoyed an encouraging
start to summer thanks to a significant
rise in hotel demand by international
visitors, new data from the Expedia
group has revealed.
The findings drawn from Q2 2017
show that the London remains
the top destination for travellers,
with several other UK destinations
showing encouraging signs of year-
on-year growth.
Demand for London remains strong,
up almost 30% when compared to the
same period last year, while Scotland
and Surrey recorded the fastest
growth of a reported 50%, followed
by Yorkshire and Wales which both
showed growths of around 40%.
The findings show it was travellers
from Brazil and Switzerland (both up
almost 140% each), Mexico (up nearly
85%), Hong Kong (up nearly 80%) and
Iceland (up more than 60%) that fuelled
the year-on-year increase.
This was also boosted by strong
demand from the USA which was up
by almost 40%.
Thanks to drier weather
conditions combined with
longer days and an early
summer, the UK has been
popular with international
guests
Julie Cheneau, Expedia’s director of market
management for the UK and Ireland
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TECHNOLOGY
Montcalm
Luxury Hotels
becomes first
London group to
launch AI chatbot
Montcalm Luxury Hotels has become
the first hotel group in London to use
an artificial intelligence ‘chatbot’ to
interact with customers.
The bot, named ‘Ami’, is described
as a fully conversational artificial
intelligence service that offers an
additional channel of communication
to site visitors before, during and after
their stay.
The solution connects with potential
customers in real time via an interactive
live chat session on the company
website. Ami is also accessible across
multiple platforms.
Working on the philosophically
problematic assumption that digital
beings conform to human gender
identities, ‘she’ can understand users’
intent and offer specific sales support
by searching and checking availability,
instantly connecting them with the
reservations team by telephone and
sending personalised emails.
Ramesh Arora, managing director of
Montcalm Luxury Hotels Group, said:
“Pioneering new ways to enjoy the art
of hospitality is central to our brand
ethos, and we believe this should begin
long before check in.
“Ami is an exciting new way our
guests can experience the ultimate
in personalised service - even before
they’ve arrived. It gives them a taste of
the kind of personal attention they can
expect during their stay with us.”
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