T&T is pulling out all the stops to ensure its developing tourism product remains competitive and attractive at a time when potential visitors are becoming more discerning in their travels, Umesh Rampersad, chairman of the Tourism Development Company (TDC) has said.Speaking at a STAR Hospitality Assured Ceremony at the TDC's Maritime office in Barataria, Rampersad said T&T's relevance in the tourism market was bolstered by a clear commitment to education and training of practitioners to ensure greater satisfaction for visitors.
Under the Hospitality Assured Certification Programme–a nine step framework created by the Institute of Hospitality (UK) specifically for the tourism and hospitality sector to improve service quality–operators of three local guest houses were certified.Villa De Rose, Bay Villa Apartments and Inna Citi Place, properties operating under the Small Tourism Accommodation Owners of T&T, earned the distinction of being the first in Trinidad to obtain certification.
The TDC's STAR Unit (Service, Attitude, Training, Respect) executed the programme, which was licensed for use in the Caribbean by the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO). "Tourism is one of the top and fastest growing sectors in the world and continues to outperform other significant industries such as financial and business services, retail and distribution, public services and transport and manufacturing.
"Tourists are continuously looking for new and exotic destinations to experience and the service quality delivered is a key factor in influencing tourist satisfaction as it relates to service courtesy, friendliness and the efficiency and responsiveness of service personnel to tourist requests and complaints," Rampersad said."As a destination marketing organisation (DMO), we have a responsibility to ensure that quality improvement is a vital ingredient in the strategy for making T&T, more competitive in a highly-competitive global marketplace.
"This has become increasingly important as there has been intensifying competition through a growing number of holiday destinations, offering similar products and services causing an increase in consumer quality awareness."Rampersad said as a survival mechanism more destinations strive to differentiate themselves from the competition by delivering a superior tourist experience and quality service, increasing the level of customer satisfaction.
"Programmes such as Hospitality Assured and STAR ensure that we keep abreast of the competition by clearly defining and establishing our service performance measures and standards as a destination," he said."As an organisation, we look forward to building on the accomplishments of this first group of Hospitality Assured properties and look forward to other stakeholders and tourism service providers becoming Hospitality assured serving as a proud mark of service and business excellence."