RWANDA’S TOURISM SECTOR SETS NEW APPROACHES

The Private Sector Federation (PSF) through its Tourism Chamber in Rwanda has held US$300,000 from Trademark East Africa to use it in the designing of an   integrated approach that will improve and increase on the earning in the tourism sector.

The new approach has been organized by the Quality Standards Task Force, which consists of Rwanda Development Board, The presidential task force on Tourism, Tourism Chamber and other stakeholders

The project will take three years and has an aim of improving on the service delivery within the sector which is the major key of the tourism sector.

The Chairman of the Tourism Chamber, Edwin Sabuhoro, said there is need for a proper approach to address the present problems like the poor customer care in the industry to improve on the he said competitiveness in the region.

Tourism sector is the major foreign exchange revenue earner in Rwanda so stakeholders have been fighting to improve on service delivery after being graded last in the East African region.

Sabuhoro said the problem has to be solved by using an up market approach through recognizing the spaces at micro level to the business entity level.

One of the waitress at the one of the hotels said the conditions they normally work in force them to lose confidence therefore leading to poor services.

According to the survey, most customer care staff said they are poorly paid and lack inspiration from their employers.

Some waitresses and waiters in some hotels said they are never offered food, work for long hours and they are not provided with transport means when they leave late.

Sabuhoro said business owners have problems so the only solution is to train the owners of the businesses that an improvement in service delivery can increase sales.

The vice chairman of the Tourism Chamber, Bart Gasana, said the project will   create more products like domestic and cultural tourism.

By the end of November of 2011, tourism revenue was US$183.2m, there fore challenging coffee and tea factor which earned US$73m and US$61m respectively.

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