Government through the Uganda Tourism Board has activated this year’ Grading and Classification Exercise for Hotels and Accommodation facilities in Uganda. The exercise which started on Thursday yesterday will be ongoing till this Friday at the Sheraton Kampala Hotel.
Bringing together all industry key stakeholders for a refresher training and sensitization exercise in Uganda, so as the knowledge acquired from the exercise is implemented into their Accommodation businesses, this exercise follows a field implementation plan, assessment and quality verification practice by certified assessing officers who this time around are from across the East African regional countries of; Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and South Sudan as they will traveling the whole Country from May to August assessing hotels before star rating them after the exercise.
Part of the statutory and essential requirements considered during the grading and classification exercise for hotels and accommodation facilities includes; Occupational premises, Valid certificate of incorporation, valid trading license from authorities of the area of operation, Qualification of Management staff, Electrical Installations, First aid and qualified personel, Menu, Wash hand basin, Room Designation, Safe Deposit, Refuse disposal, Fume extraction, Sewage disposal and treatment vermin proofing, Water supply, Departmental heads Qualification, Medical examination, Hotel insurance and Electrical safety among many more depending on the facility category.
Bradford Ocheng – UTB Deputy CEO
In an Interview with Bradford Ocheng – UTB Deputy CEO, the grading and classification exercise is part of Uganda Tourism Board key mandate as a Government Agency established in 1994, as the exercise is a prerequisite of registration and licensing in order to qualify for the exercise and in order for the team to assess a property, the owners or management must have registered with UTB and licensed as well.
He says, ‘’He says the last exercise we did was in the year 2017, but before that, we had one in 2012 and 2015, we were supposed to have one in 2019 but given challenges around, we didn’t manage to make it same applied to 2020 which had scheduled but given the outbreak of Covid -19, we thus had to move it to this year 2021’’.
Bradford adds, ‘’We are happy to announce that the exercise is back and on right course as we will be going through Uganda to see that enterprises including; Accommodation facilities, Restaurants, and Tourist facilities are all graded as part of the East African grading and Classification criteria’’.
He further states that, ‘’the sensitization exercise has commenced as we have been to Fortportal for western region, Arua for Westnile and Northern region and now in Kampala for Central area.’’ He adds.. .’’What we will do next after this sensitization exercise is called the inventorization process where we get facilities supposed to be invented and see if they can qualify given 100% compliance in the process, and when this is done, we move to the next stage of putting the Classification into practice with the aid of assessors qualified, well trained and certified from across the East African member states.
He also reveals, ’We are confident that with the independent assessors, the exercise is going to be seamlessly trusted, honest and transparent as we call upon all accommodation owners to come forward for and be part of the classification and grading exercise’’.
Guest of honour Ms Susan Muhwezi – Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) vice chair and Chairperson Uganda Hotel Owners Association (UHOA), upon officially launching the exercise lauded the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities, Uganda Tourism Board and the different Government Agencies for ensuring grading and classification exercise is implemented so as Accommodation facilities and hotels become competitive both on the local, regional and international market and also applauded Uganda Hotel Owners Association for pushing tirelessly for the Exercise as she urged members to embrace it Countrywide.
Ms Susan Muhwezi – Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) vice chair and Chairperson Uganda Hotel Owners Association (UHOA)
She added, ‘’I must thank our members today for the efforts they have taken to being part of this exercise. We as part of hotel owners must ensure that we get the training and right information’’.
She further adds, ‘’This process is good if all members are on the same page and we believe by the end of the training they will be ready.’’
She also urged members to ensure they get access to the right information from the board’s Quality Assurance team and Uganda Hotel Owners Association so that the board doesn’t get overwhelmed with querries and complaints given last times exercise and challenges that tagged along.
Susan thanked the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities and Uganda Tourism Board for giving the platform to Hotel Owners and Managers and urged them to get ready for the grading and classification exercise.
The President of the Hotel General Managers Association and General Manager for Eureka Place Hotel – Mark Kirya revealed that the grading and classification exercise is a major marketing tool for Uganda.
‘’We market the whole of East Africa as one destination, that implies if Uganda has poor standard hotels, tourists will not stay, they will rather fly to Bwindi National Park, do the Gorilla tracking and then fly back to Nairobi, Tanzania, Rwanda or anyother East African Country to stay of their choice because we are now five countries in the region and share one single visa yet we need those revenues here since we employ thousands of Ugandans as Hoteliers, pay taxes and greatly add to the GDP of the Economy’’.
Sheraton Hotel Kampala General Manager Mr Jean Phillipe Bittencourt said, ‘’ The grading and classification exercise is very important as it gives a label and certification on a global sphere of our industry here, therefore its very important that we all come and engage to the policies that must be put in place’’.
Sheraton Hotel Kampala General Manager Mr Jean Phillipe Bittencourt
He adds,’’ As brand Sheraton hotel, we are accustomed to having very high standards something that makes us really improve and give us pressure to see that we keep up with the good ratings, therefore the grading and classification exercise will help improve value for hotels of destination Uganda’’.
Speke Resort and Munyonyo Common Wealth Resort – General Manager Mr Greg Petzer said, ‘’We are very excited to be part and parcel of the process having gone through it earlier in 2017, a lot has really changed and happened interms of standard, guest experience and guest expectation.’’
He concluded, ‘’the importance of this process is to ensure that we exceed guest expectations as markets have really changed in the past 12 months and therefore, it’s a good time to be positive and ensure we are delivering market guest expectations.
Mamerito Ssenfuma – Hotel Link Solutions service provider talking to guests at Sheraton Kampala during the Exercise.
Late last month, Uganda Tourism Board held a refresher training course for the 12 EAC-certified hotel assessors in order to comply in line with the latest new East African Community (EAC) standards on hotels among other tourism facilities in Uganda as this lasted two days at Protea Hotel, Entebbe.
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