Rwanda Hotel and Restaurant Association seeks to establish dialogue platform with local authorities

HOTELIERS SEEK DIALOGUE WITH LOCAL AUTHORITIES
Rwandas Hotel and Restaurant Association has expressed their readiness to involve local authorities in dialogue, aimed to mitigate if not prevent sudden swoops and even closures on their members over alleged or real infringement of regulations. A major meeting with mayors and other leading administration officials will seek to cement closer ties between the business association, the membership at large and local public officials, to promote regular dialogue and exchange of views.
Mr. Dennis Karera, Chairman of RHRA, was quoted to have said: We want to forge this cooperation to mainly avoid abrupt closure of hotels, restaurants and bars without prior talks on the cause of closure. This does not mean that there will no longer be any more closure of restaurants or hotels, but it will actually bring about proper coordination to even take tougher measures against owners who persistently ignore to abide by the minimum standards.
The Mayor of the capital city of Kigali has also gone on record welcoming the initiative from the hotel and restaurant association, expressing his hope that the planned meetings, due to be held at least three times a year, can help to identify issues and problems and solve them in an amicable and regulated fashion instead of just locking up premises.
The initiative, it is understood from a regular source in Kigali, is mainly aimed to improve industry standards, on hygiene and related concerns, to uplift the standards on a broad basis to the level of the regions other countries, where institutional dialogue has long been in place.