The government of the United Kingdom, after winning a Parliamentary vote to proceed with its plan to leave the European Union, published a white paper titled “The United Kingdom’s exit from and new partnership with the European Union.”

The government put forward its negotiating stance in regard to trade, sovereignty and, most tellingly perhaps for hotel firms, how it both hopes to curb immigration while also filling skill shortages. The paper suggested the government wants to “secure the status of EU citizens who are already living in the U.K., and that of U.K. nationals in other Member States, as early as we can.”

Speaking to the Boston Business Journal, Arne Sorenson, president and CEO of Marriott International, commented on President Donald Trump’s recently announced immigration ban. Sorenson said that while he did not in any way want to belittle the pain it has caused people, the ban was “on a technical basis, not an enormous deal” for the hospitality industry.

Sorenson added “the numbers associated with those seven countries, it’s not necessarily all that big. Having said that, all across the Middle East, people see this as a symbolically much more significant step than simply a statement about travel or immigration from those seven countries. And it causes people to wonder, ‘OK, will I be permitted to come? Do I want to go?’”

The Bank of England showed confidence in the U.K. economy with its 2 February statement that it now expects the U.K. economy to grow 2% over the calendar year. It said it also expected growth of 1.6% in 2018, and growth of 1.7% in 2019.

Not all is rosy, though, according to the BBC, which reported that the bank’s forecast for 2017 also calls for the savings rate of the U.K. population to drop to 4%, “the lowest rate since records began in the early 1960s.” The governor of the bank, Mark Carney, said he intends to keep the bank’s interest rate at its current 0.25%.

The days of grab n’ go offerings in hotels being merely a convenient cooler cabinet are over. Nowadays, the responsibility of making them a profit center, albeit often a modest one, has led these conveniences, as well as smaller cafés and minimarts, to adopt new style and community involvement, writes Hotel News Now’s Terence Baker.

Dexter Moren, director of design firm Dexter Moren Associates, said that with such offerings, it’s “all about working around the individual hotel and the space available, its functional needs and brand character … (and) also about providing a service for the guest by presenting a varied and healthy choice that is convenient and also rivals any equivalent High Street café.”

Marriott International has announced that a W brand hotel will open in Melbourne, Australia, in 2020 as part of a AU$1 billion ($765 million) mixed-use development named Collins Arch.

A partnership with Daisho Development Melbourne and Cbus Property, the 294-room W Melbourne is the second W announced for Australia, the first being the W Brisbane due to open in 2018.

Compiled by Terence Baker.