The Editor's Hospitality Blog

In this week's Caterer and Hotelkeeper, we offer twenty surefire ways to hang on to your most valued hotel, restaurant, bar and contract catering staff. Here are just five of them, to whet your appetite.

Our top twenty was put together with the assistance of such luminaries as Jane Sunley, from learning providers Learnpurple; and Sean Wheeler, group director of people development, Malmaison/Hotel du Vin.

ONE Keep things interesting: vary tasks and responsibilities to avoid staff boredom.

TWO Carry out regular appraisals: formal objectives provide focus and motivation, as well as a valuable communications channel.

THREE Don't be a harsh critic: avoid a blame culture, but let staff to learn from mistakes made.

FOUR Allow people to grow: allow employees the chance to strectch themselves and shine.

FIVE Say thank you: easy to do, just as easily forgotten.

Let me know what tools you use to motivate staff and keep them onboard.

The Coolbrands Council published its annual list of the UK’s coolest brands last week. Hospitality was well represented, with the likes of Malmaison, the Lowry Hotel, 42 The Calls, Smiths of Smithfield and Le Manoir aux Quatr’Saisons all earning a ranking.

Also listed were cool global brand destinations such as Cambodia, Croatia, Malaysia and Vietnam.

With the launch of Winning: A tourism strategy for 2012 and beyond, this week, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport hopes to ensure that Brand UK rates highly on similar lists across the world in the coming decade.

The DCMS forecasts that, by capitalising upon the opportunity the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games provide to showcase all we have to offer as a nation, we could generate £2.1bn from additional tourism between now and 2017.

The strategy provides a blueprint for improving international perceptions of Britain, delivering a first-class welcome to all visitors, improving tourist infrastructure and facilities, boosting the skills of the workforce and driving up accommodation quality by increasing the number of places that are accredited under the national star-grading scheme.

But the document fails to detail exactly how all these improvements will be paid for. Substantial investment will be required to realise an extra £2.1bn increase in tourism revenue; you have to speculate to accumulate.

We will have to wait until the announcement of the Comprehensive Spending Review in October to see if the government is prepared to put its money where its mouth is, by committing an adequate funding strategy to capitalising on the Olympics. Fair words alone will not spark significant growth in in-bound and domestic tourism off the back of the Games.