Tourism Service Excellence Is everybody’s business
Customer satisfaction, like in all other sectors, is critical for the sustainability of the tourism sector. Quality service is therefore at the centre of the delivery of tourism products. Service Excellence has been identified as one of the important programmes for the sector to develop and create much needed jobs.
Tourism Excellence seeks to improve Free State competitive edge and make tourism one of the sectors that adds value to the economy of the province. It is further intended to educate business community and the public in general about the importance of quality experiences created to maintain and sustain jobs in the tourism sector and secure return business.
To create awareness and encourage tourism service excellence amongst tourism product owners and the general public, the Department of Economic, Small Business Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (DESTEA) will embark on a Tourism Service Excellence campaign during this festive season. The focus or emphasis will be on quality, professional experiences and absolute service culture towards customers and treating the travelling market with courtesy as it encourage return visits.
The campaign will unfold in two phases, which encompasses training of tourism product owners and their staff on how to give excellent service to travelers. The second phase is an activation which strives to inculcate the culture to ordinary Free State citizens to be at the centre of the programme and become ambassadors of service delivery through word of mouth for all tourists seen visiting the province.
All efforts in service excellence are geared towards improving service levels in the tourism value chain. It should be understood that poor service levels are attributed to numerous factors by both product owners and the general public which should be addressed if the tourism sector is to succeed it critical role in economic growth in the province.
To this end, the department will meet tourism product owners in Bethlehem for a service excellence awareness session. This will be followed by a tour of the businesses in Bethlehem and Bohlokong as a campaign to encourage shop owner and staff to improve service excellence in order to ensure satisfied customers and business growth.
The details are as follows:
Date: 06 December 2019
Venue: Bethlehem (Dihlabeng Local Municipality Offices)
Time: 10:00
Media is invited.
Enquiries:
Lebogang Maloale
Tel: 051 400 9631
E-mail: maloalel@destea.gov.za
