To comply in line with the latest new East African Community (EAC) standards on hotels among other tourism facilities in Uganda, the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) on Tuesday this week started off with a refresher training course lasting two days for the 12 EAC-certified hotel assessors at Protea Hotel, Entebbe.
Unlike the previous exercises, this year’s sensitive implementation that commences in May 2021, aims at improving skills for all Tourism facility practitioners especially in the presence of Covid – 19 and how they can operate effectively given the new East African Community guidelines as also during the course the board will embark on enormous stakeholder sensitization exercise.
Every year, Uganda Tourism Board takes on the grading and classification procedures especially for the private sector in the Accommodation business at different levels of service offering.
Mrs. Susan Muhwezi, the UTB Board Vice-Chair and Chairperson of Uganda Hotels Owners Association (UHOA) upon addressing assessors and the media on Tuesday this week, lauded UTB for working closely with the private sector members, such as UHOA in the grading and classification exercise as she said this is very vital for the recovery of Uganda’s tourism sector.
She noted that, “Most tourists especially foreigners value the stars of the hotel they are booking and they always look forward to experiencing the standards of the indicated star of a particular hotel,” she said, urging the assessors to be diligent in their work and to follow the set procedures and standards.
Mrs Muhwezi guaranteed her support during the exercise as both the UTB Board Vice-Chair and the Chairperson of the Uganda Hotels Owners Association.
The East African Community, standards criteria for classification of hotels, restaurants and other tourist facilities were gazzeted in 2009 to encourage and maintain quality standards in products and services being delivered to tourists in East Africa.The standards were institutionalized under the Tourism Regulations 2008.
The standards include:
- Classification Criteria for Lodges
- Classification criteria for Motels
- Classification Criteria for Guesthouses
- Classification Criteria for Tented Camps
- Classification Criteria for Town hotels
- Classification Criteria for Vacation Hotels
- Classification Criteria for Villas, Cottages and serviced apartments
Since the release of the criteria, Uganda has been able to classify 121 accommodation facilities. The exercise was last conducted in 2017.
According to Ms. Lilly Ajarova, the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) Chief Executive Officer, due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the resultant lockdown measures, the next round of assessment which was scheduled to commence from the end of FY 2019/20 was postponed to FY2020/21.
She said, “The star-rating we give during the grading and classification has a life span of 2 years meaning that all facilities that were graded can no longer identify themselves with the star rating they were awarded with because it expired, and this means that currently Uganda does not have any graded facilities. Due to Covid-19, a number of facilities’ standards have gone down, so this exercise is important for safeguarding the standards in the sector and the competitiveness of Destination Uganda,” she said.
She concluded, “UTB’S decision to conduct classification envisions transforming the tourism sector into “one of the top long-haul tourist destinations that offer a high-value, diverse and distinct visitor experience,”
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