Improving East Africa Tourism
More than 2 dozen hotels await star rating in Rwanda
(eTN) - The Rwanda Development Board (RDB) for Tourism and Conservation, has concluded the first phase of the East Africa-wide grading and classifying of hotels, resorts, lodges, and other hospitality businesses. Today, about 30 hotels in Kigali will be awarded their "stars" at a ceremony held at the Kigali Serena Hotel, itself expecting to reap a full 5 stars, of course, arguably being Kigali’s finest hotel at present.
The ceremony will also highlight the rationale behind the exercise and tell the story of a country-wide roll-out to ascertain that visitors to "The Land of a Thousand Hills" will be assured of quality, which will use the same criteria across the East African Community (EAC).
Ms. Rica Rwigamba, the Head of Tourism and Conservation within the RDB, has already, in advance of the ceremony later today, announced that as many as 16 types of establishments would come under the scrutiny of trained assessors before being given the coveted "stars" - a seal of quality and approval now unfolding across the EAC. Rwanda is second only to Tanzania to commence the exercise in earnest, while logistical, as well as political, issues still need resolving in neighboring Burundi, Uganda, and even Kenya, where the present system of rating will have to give way to the community-wide new method, using a jointly developed catalogue of criteria to accomplish one rating system for the entire region.
Miss Rwigamba has quantified the cost of the exercise to this point as approximately 120 million Rwanda francs, a considerable expense for one of the "smaller" EAC countries but generally thought well worth it as the country seeks regional leadership through innovation, variety, and quality in the tourism and conservation sectors.
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