CONCERNS OVER
BUSINESS RATES
Small and privately-owned hotels in Scotland have been
paying 23% more in business rates than their counterparts south of the
border for the last three years, according to the Forum of Private Business
(FPB) in Scotland.
The FPB said its most recent quarterly survey in Scotland
showed business rates are a concern for 76.6% of small Scottish firms
and of much greater concern in Scotland than in the UK as a whole.
A delegation of business groups met with Andy Kerr, the
finance minister, to protest against high business rates north of the
border.
News you wanted us to pass on...
There have been several incidents of card fraud in Scottish
Hotels with guests running up bills of up to £700. This can be individuals
or criminal gangs. Here are some top tips:
THE LATEST CARD FRAUD -
AND HOW TO AVOID THE SCAMS
Card fraud cost UK merchants £411m last year, 30pc up on 2000,
according to Apacs, the banks' cheque clearance system.
Criminal gangs plant staff in restaurants and hotels to
"skim" information from credit cards which will be used to produce
a counterfeit clone. Meanwhile, they usually steal from the till and stocks,
said Andy Sutherland, fraud prevention manager at American Express.
Hotels and restaurants suffering big or repeated raids
by skimmers and users of counterfeit cards lose millions when the card
companies refuse to pay on fraudulent card use. They are also penalised
when card issuers withdraw the facility to accept cards, and for some
that could mean closure.
The introduction of chips and use of PINs in 2005 will
improve security but Mr Sutherland suggests immediate ways to minimise
the risk of card crime:
- Put the till in the open; in a restaurant use a mobile
terminal that can be taken to the table
- Ensure there is no "out
of place" equipment or cabling attached to or near point of sale
equipment.
- Tell staff the company will co-operate in prosecuting
card skimmers
- Encourage staff to keep a look
out for colleagues who regularly disappear from view with a card or
tell customers it was not authorised
- Vet staff thoroughly, take up references and speak
to previous employers report suspicious behaviour or equipment to Crimestoppers
on 0800 555111 straight away. A £500 reward is available for information
leading to the conviction of anyone involved in card skimming
- Be wary of customers who try to rush bill payment or
seem unduly nervous.
- Check the card for uneven embossing,
blurred printing and signs of tampering and make sure the numbers cannot
be rubbed off
- Check the account number embossed
on front of the card is repeated on the back and matches the number
printed on the till receipt.
- Check the signatures on the card and on the printed
receipt match if suspicious, call for authorisation requesting a 'Code
10'.
- Hotels accepting cards without the customer's presence
should record the account number, customer name, billing address and
contact telephone number (do not accept a mobile number), and check
the card is still valid.
GRANTS AND ASSISTANCE PACKAGES AVAILABLE
The Scottish executive is to encourage businesses to start
up alongside Scotland’s Millennium Link Canal by providing grants
and assistance packages. The executive is working with Scottish Enterprise,
British Waterways and local authorities to identify development proposals
for the restoration of canal-side land, focusing on the Falkirk area.
Scottish Enterprise is putting together a business development
support initiative to offer advice packages to companies planning developments
along the canal route. Iain Gray, the enterprise, transport and lifelong
learning minister, has already pledged £2.8m to help identify the
untapped potential of Scotland’s canal network.
Developing a canal culture in Scotland would benefit tourism
as The Falkirk Wheel has demonstrated. The only rotating boatlift wheel
of its kind in the world has already attracted more than 300,000 visitors
to the region. Economic studies predict the Millennium Link could lead
to an increase in annual tourism spending of more than £10m.
OPENING OF NEW FIVE STAR HOTEL IN GLASGOW
The five-star Radisson SAS that has taken two years
to build opened for business in Glasgow city centre on the 11 of November.
The hotel is primarily aiming to attract business executives
and conferences. This seven hotel is centrally located in Argyll Street
near to Central Station, in one of the main shopping districts and with
immediate access to the key business areas. The hotel will offer 252 rooms
and guests will be able to choose from a wide variety of room styles with
spectacular views across the city.
HOGMANAY PLANS FOR EDINBURGH ARE BIGGER AND BETTER
The Hogmanay programme is bigger than ever, with a host of new events
including a massive club night on New Year’s Day in the New Town
and a whole afternoon of extra events in Holyrood Park on the same day.
The programme of events kicks off with the traditional
torchlight procession through the city centre on December 29 from Parliament
Square to Calton Hill, which will this year be headed by a team of performers
from Shetland’s famous Up-Helly-A Viking fire festival.
The following evening will see street theatre acts from
France, London and Spain staging spectacular performances in George Street
at the Night Afore Fiesta, which will also include ceilidh dancing, a
parade of massed pipes and drums and world music.
A spokesman for Unique Events, which has been hired by
the city council to organise official celebrations for the last ten years,
declared this year’s programme was the "biggest and best in
the world".
Edinburgh has an unrivalled programme of events which
draws people from all over the world.
2006 SCOTTISH YEAR OF HIGHLAND CULTURE
The Scottish Executive is to help organise a showcase
of Highland culture in 2006. Jack McConnell, the First Minister, has given
the go-ahead for Highland Council and Highlands and Islands Enterprise
(HIE) to form a taskforce to take forward plans for celebrating a renaissance
of the area’s culture and report in February.
The cultural year will coincide with the opening of a
£6.5 million extension to Eden Court Theatre in Inverness.
Sir Cameron Mackintosh, the West End producer of some
of the world’s most popular musicals, who was patron of the Highland
bid, has already said he will sponsor a new musical, which will be premièred
at Eden Court. Sir Cameron also hopes to bring a production of Les Miserables
to the Highlands in 2005, where it will be performed to a 5,000-strong
audience at an outdoor venue.
The Highland team is also going ahead with plans to create
a £20 million cultural quarter in Inverness and to promote its cultural
pledge, which will see 34,000 schoolchildren in Highland offered free
access to cultural and sporting activities.
TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE AT ABERDEEN AIRPORT
TO BE IMPROVED
An award of £318,000 from the Scottish Executive
will be used to upgrade bus stops and shelters around Aberdeen Airport.
A further £115,000 will be spent on a survey of transport needs
in Dyce.
The North-east of Scotland Transport Partnership (Nestrans),
will receive the £318,000 award. It will be working in partnership
with the British Airports Authority and the airport to improve the transport
infrastructure at Dyce.
These extra resources will supplement the £560,000
announced in August for the Aberdeen Airport Surface Access Strategy making
life easier for people using the airport and commuting to and from the
Dyce area.
CALL FOR DRASTIC OVERHAUL OF SCOTTISH TOURISM ORGANISATIONS
The Aberdeen Hotels Association called on Scottish
Tourism, Culture and Sport Minister Mike Watson to scrap independent organisations
like the Aberdeen and Grampian Tourist Board and instead set up a single
Scotland-wide organisation with area offices "all working together
to implement an agreed national strategy".
The demand set the AHA, representing Aberdeen's top 25
hotels, at loggerheads with the Tourist Board, who have themselves put
proposals to Mr Watson urging the retention of Area Tourist Boards.
The AGTB fears that a centralised Scottish body would
be Central Belt-dominated and fail to serve the interests of the North-east.
PLANS TO STRENGTHEN THE OVERSEAS PROMOTION OF SCOTTISH TOURISM
Scottish protests that their overseas interests might
become submerged as the BTA concentrates on its much larger English role
secured a promise by BTA chairman David Quarmby that funding to promote
Scotland "will be ring-fenced" and his board's accountability
to the Scottish Executive strengthened.
Scottish Tourism Minister, Mike Watson, issued a statement
welcoming what he described as "plans to strengthen the overseas
promotion work which the British Tourist Authority (BTA) does on behalf
of Scotland".
He said: "We have been able to secure a strengthened
role for Scotland in the new body, including consultation on the BTA management
statement and on appointments to the board."
He pledged: "I will also be keeping a close eye on
how the British Tourist Authority discharges its new role in marketing
England as a tourism destination in the GB market."
VISIT SCOTLAND EXPO 2003
SECC, Glasgow
9th, 10th April 2003
VisitScotland expo is Scotland's main
annual travel trade show, organised by VisitScotland. It is the only business-to-business
tourism event that is entirely 'Scottish' and offers the perfect opportunity
for all Scotland-based exhibitors to showcase their products and services
to potential buyers from around the globe.
VisitScotland expo invites all Scottish tourism businesses
to exhibit, from accommodation and conference and incentive providers
to golf and leisure clubs and transport operators. In fact, all tourism-related
companies with a Scotland-based product would find this show beneficial.
Buyers from around the globe are invited to expo by VisitScotland's
Marketing department and the Scottish Convention Bureau. The show is an
invitation-only event which allows VisitScotland to ensure the quality
of the buyers.
For more information and a stand booking form, please
contact: VisitScotland Events Department
Tel: 0131 472 2376
Fax: 0131 332 9212
Email events@visitscotland.com
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