Hyatt Hotels Corp. President and CEO Mark Hoplamazian believes the hotel industry has come a long way in a short amount of time in terms of making hotels safer places for both guests and employees.

Speaking during the recent American Hotel & Lodging Association Safety Summit, Hoplamazian, who is also the AHLA chairman, said he believes safety and security is "a never-ending and ever-changing challenge, and we're up for that challenge."

"For the hospitality industry, people are at our core, and we all know that we've got a responsibility to do all that we can do to protect our employees, our guests and everybody who's coming into our hotels," he said.

The industry's major accomplishments in recent history include training to combat sexual harassment and sexual assault within the industry and the widespread adoption of AHLA's Five Star Promise, which includes implementation of safety alert devices for employees, he said.

The Five Star Promise was announced in late 2018 and included the devices aimed primarily at giving employees, particularly housekeepers, a way to alert other staffers if they feel threatened by guests. He believes it's already shown considerable improvements across the industry.

"Nearly 60 member companies representing an estimated 20,000 hotel properties have made the pledge, and as a result, an estimated 1.2 million employees will be better protected on the job," Hoplamazian said. "In addition, more than 5,000 hotels have implemented employee safety devices, and we continue to work toward nationwide implementation by the end of 2022."

He said he sees these efforts as core to the mission for hospitality businesses.

"The Hyatt family is driven by our purpose to care for people so they can be their best, and there's nothing more foundational to caring for someone than making sure they're safe and cared for while they're working," he said. "At Hyatt, we do not tolerate guest harassment of our employees."

Hoplamazian said all of these efforts will continues to be works in progress.

"Year after year, we build on our efforts to protect workers and guests with meaningful action, but we must and continue to do more," he said.

Speaking during the event, Sen. Jacky Rosen, a Democrat from Nevada, said it's vital for the government to help the broad travel industry get back up and running as quickly as possible due to its economic importance, especially in places like Nevada.

"Far too many Nevadans who've built their careers in the hospitality, travel and tourism industries are out of work, and our communities are hurting," she said. "But I want you to know that help is on the way through the recently passed American Rescue Plan and its many provisions to support hospitality and tourism."

She promised to champion the industry's ongoing issues in Congress.

"I'm going to work tirelessly to support the recovery," she said. "I'm going to highlight the challenges that hospitality centered businesses face, and I'm going to continue to advocate for critical aid for hospitality workers and businesses, not just in Nevada, but all across our country."

At the same event, Chris Krebs, former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said cybersecurity concerns have grown in importance, especially in an environment of a "digital transformation that has been exacerbated by the coronavirus."

He noted there are a number of potential attackers looking to steal a hotel company's data.

"Data is valuable to a range of different actors," he said. "So what we've seen is yes the big state actors, our adversaries, have continued to go out there and look for information on your clients who may be government employees staying at your properties or those whales, the big, high-profile individuals.

"But we're also seeing a criminal outbreak right now. Just last January I was down in Miami for a different conference, but the Fontainebleau Hotel had a ransomware attack, and guests were delayed checking in. So, it's not just our big actors."

He said this is a threat more business leaders need to take seriously.

"We have to continue educating our executives," he said. "And that's the entirety of the C-suite, not just the chief information security officers."