RDB TOURISM & CONSERVATION PROMOTES INCREASED CUSTOMER CARE
Information was received overnight that the Rwanda Development Boards Tourism and Conservation Department has partnered with the hospitality industry to promote better customer care and service delivery across a broad section of hotels, lodges and restaurants.
20 participants were drawn from the Quality and Standards Task Force of the tourism chamber, the heads of the sectoral trade associations for hotels, restaurants and bars, officials from the Ministry of Commerce and key stakeholders. This follows a meeting chaired by the Rwandan Prime Minister earlier in February, when the need to improve skills in the hospitality industry was discussed, following the concluded grading and classification of hotels in line with East African Community standards.
Ms. Rica Rwigamba, Head of the Tourism & Conservation Department at RDB, had this to say: The hospitality sector is a service oriented sector, hence customer care should at the chore of every business success. Our priority this year is to ensure that businesses in the tourism sector offer high quality service and we are ready to work hand in hand with them to achieve this objective. However we shall take appropriate measures for those that will not fulfill basic requirements.
It was also learned that RDB plans to name and shame establishments which fail to uplift standards and bring the tourism and hospitality industry into disrepute with foreign visitors as well as local patrons, to ensure that failure to train staff and improve standards will not go unpunished while at the same time awarding the best performing companies in a high profile event.
Rwandas tourism sector has grown in recent years in leaps and bounds and revenues and foreign exchange earnings have risen by nearly 25 percent again in 2011 to now over 252 million US Dollars. Visit www.rwandatourism.com for more information on the countrys three national parks and other attractions like the Congo Nile Trail along Lake Kivu and the various birding trails established last year.
