THE first hospitality roundtable conference took place last week in
Dar es Salaam that provided professionals in the field with a forum to
discuss challenges and opportunities they face on a day-to-day basis and
to learn from best practices of their peers.
The organiser of the roundtable and Chief Executive Officer,
Hospitality Design Partnership (HDP), Mr Meelis Kuuskler said that with
international and domestic investors recognising the rich potential in
Tanzania, it was really the time for those in the industry to discuss
how Tanzania can best foster a sustainable hospitality industry, build
lasting and mutually beneficial partnerships and build a pipeline for
success.
"It is our aim that the hospitality roundtable will grow into a
memorable important conference in the African hospitality industry and
to that end, I am especially grateful to the fantastic network of people
who have contributed their expertise, talents and time to the event
this year," he said during the opening of the discussion.
Putting meat on the skeleton on the rich potential of the industry,
according to a presentation by Viability Hospitality Consultants, there
are a number of brand hotels that are coming in Tanzania including Hyatt
Regency Arusha with 144 rooms destined to be opened in 2016, Colosseum
(90 rooms) and Ramada Resort Dar es Salaam (136 rooms) for this year.
Others are Dar es Salaam Rotana (200) for 2018, the Best Western chain
in Zanzibar with 26 rooms in 2014, Four Seasons Resort Zanzibar with 73
rooms to be announced, Double Tree by Hilton Stone Town 58 rooms in 2014
and Park Hyatt Stone Town 72 in 2015.
According to the World Travel and Tourism Council Tanzania 2014
Report, in 2013, Travel & Tourism's total contribution to the global
economy rose to 9.5 per cent of global GDP (US $7 trillion), not only
outpacing the wider economy, but also growing faster than other
significant sectors such as financial and business services, transport
and manufacturing. In total, nearly 266 million jobs were supported by
Travel & Tourism in 2013 - 1 in 11 of all jobs in the world.
The sustained demand for Travel & Tourism, together with its
ability to generate high levels of employment continues to prove the
importance and value of the sector as a tool for economic development
and job creation. The outlook for Travel & Tourism in 2014 is also
very positive, with Total Travel & Tourism GDP growth forecast to
reach 4.3 per cent.
Much of this growth is being driven by higher consumer spending as
the recovery from recession gathers pace and is becoming firmly
established. "Tourists are expected to spend more per trip and stay
longer on their holidays in 2014, while long haul travel, especially
among the European markets, is also expected to gain a greater share of
international tourism demand.
Profitability for travel companies should also start to edge up,
bringing opportunities for further job creation in the process," the
report read in part. At the roundtable there were some interesting
discussions, others heated and others not. They revolved around the
state of industry, how to enter and stay in the industry, the ABCs of
how to develop a hotel, the value of human capital, the role of PR in
hospitality developments and operations, ICT applications and its
impact, how to develop successful partnerships as well as the driving
revenue of food and beverages.
One of the topics that brought a very interesting discussion was that
of the value of human capital and one of the things that the
participants pondered on was why students who graduate from the string
of tourism colleges in the country fail to get employed in the hotels
that are in the country where the hotels often prefer graduates from
neighbouring countries.
Before the debate ensued, the Zanzibar Institute of Tourism
Development Head of Department of Hospitality Training, Ms Maryam Ali
Mussa, gave a presentation on the value of human capital saying that
when the global clove market dwindled, the Revolutionary government of
Zanzibar made purposeful efforts to boost the national economy through
tourism as a second major national income source, thus the need to
establish a training centre in tourism and hospitality serves emerged.
Ms Mussa cited the major challenges facing the industry as being
diversification of courses in wellness and spa, water sports, tour
operating and guiding, in the field of airfare and ticketing,
hospitality management at higher levels, limitation in communication
skills in English, Spanish, French, Italian, Chinese, German and Arabic.
"Other areas affecting the upgrading of staff like the training at
master level in the hospitality industry, exposure of staff to
professional best practices in reputable hotel and training
institutions," she said. Taking the cue of lack of exposure, Mr Kuuskler
who has over 30 years experience in the field said that this is
something seriously lacking in the country particularly in the training
colleges because while it is easy to teach a student how to answer
phones and carry a tray, without ever having practised and worked in
reputable hotels it is difficult to teach someone how to always humble,
smile all the time and be a quick problem solver as the industry
necessitates.
Mr Kuuskler said that the hospitality industry is about giving a
visitor an experience that will last a lifetime and one that will compel
them to come back again and again and therefore to be abreast at this,
for a person working in the restaurant, they must be able to propose and
give reasons what is the dish of the day because they have personally
sampled everything on the menu and know the ingredients of everything.
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