The Tourism Grading Council of South Africa (TGCSA), a business unit, of South African Tourism are running quality assurance and capacity building workshops to create awareness on the importance of Quality Assurance in promoting the recovery and the development of the tourism sector.
Best known as the custodians of tourism quality assurance and service excellence, TGCSA is mandated to promote the star grading of establishments to ensure that South Africa remains a destination of choice that achieves the highest level of quality assurance, promotes optimal value for money and gives ‘customer expectation’ the focus it requires.
The objectives of the workshops are to; re-educate tourism trade on the value of Quality Assurance as a key pillar of tourism recovery and encourage tourism establishments to grade through the use of available incentive programmes and the benefits thereof to properties. The workshops also present the South Africa welcome- and trade capacitation programmes ensuring that all relevant stakeholders on the various tourism value chain touchpoints understand the value of the visitor and enhance their experience by promoting service excellence within their businesses.
The workshops are a continuation from 2021 and are targeted at all graded and non-graded tourism accommodation establishments.
To successfully execute, TGCSA is working closely with local and provincial government entities in each Province to ensure that the programme is jam packed with valuable information that will assist tourism business owners to grow their businesses.
The programme includes the following presentations from various business units within South African Tourism:
1. How to grade – the importance of grading, the process and benefits
2. Universal Accessibility Awareness – encouraging more establishments to be universally accessible.
3. Illegal Advertising – process of how to submit complaints for graded and non-graded properties
4. Speed marketing – marketing access opportunities provided through the Speed Marketing Sessions
5. Domestic Campaign – educating products on how to participate on the Sho’t Left campaigns that provide marketing value to all tourism products.
6. Welcome Training and Capacity Building Programme– enhance the tourist experience at accommodation establishments.
Ms Amanda Kotze-Nhlapo, Acting Chief Quality Assurance Officer at TGCSA said, “We introduced these workshops with the aim to support the tourism industry during this recovery period. A need to educate, inspire, motivate and convince all tourism establishments to be graded was identified, to support our journey to re-build Team South Africa.
“Being associated with a well-known quality assurance body, such as the Tourism Grading Council of South Africa, has an impact on how customers view your business. Star rating assures consumers of the quality of our product and the expectation of a quality assured experience. Kotze-Nhlapo concludes.
The workshops kicked off in KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and Free State last year and Mpumalanga in January 2022. The workshop covered two sessions in each province and each session covering two municipal areas within a province.
Upcoming Workshop Schedule;
1. Western Cape – 07 and 08 February 2022 (Weskus Region and Cape Winelands Region)
2. Eastern Cape – 22 and 23 February 2022 (Joe Gqabi DM and Chris Hani DM)
3. Limpopo – 08 and 09 March 2022 (Waterberg DM and Mopani DM)
4. Gauteng – 17 March 2022 (West Rand DM)
5. Northern Cape – 22 and 23 March 2022
If you would like to find out more about the Quality Assurance workshops in your province, please contact Victor Sethwana via email on victor@tourismgrading.co.za to book your space for the next session.
