Gaps in Rwanda’s hospitality sector: All your questions answered
Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/IgiheTV?sub_confirmation=1
Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/igihe
DailyMotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/igihetelevision
Twitter: https://twitter.com/IGIHE
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/igiheofficial
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/igihepictures/
Website: http://igihe.com/
#IGIHE #Rwanda
Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/igihe
DailyMotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/igihetelevision
Twitter: https://twitter.com/IGIHE
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/igiheofficial
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/igihepictures/
Website: http://igihe.com/
#IGIHE #Rwanda
Transcript
00:00 The impressive development of tourism sector is among Great Strait's
00:07 render hazardous for the past few years. This is evidenced through revenues generated by the
00:11 country, hotels and business people with huge investments investing in the sector.
00:16 Although there are a lot of achievements to celebrate, there are still gaps,
00:19 especially in terms of hospitality, where poor services persist at some facilities.
00:24 It is extremely disappointing to spend many hours at a hospitality establishment
00:29 when hungry, without anyone daring to serve you. Eight waiters are passing by,
00:33 others are telling jokes. You do not have to be in a small restaurant to experience
00:37 substandard services. In fact, it might not be surprising to receive poor services
00:42 at a five-star hotel, which may compel you to never return.
00:45 After realising the issues marring the tourism and hospitality sector,
00:49 Iggy He spoke with some of the industry's international experts,
00:52 who pointed out what needs to be done to have it improved.
00:55 Tuyung Tangbili, a Hong Kong citizen who has been working in tourism and hospitality for more than
01:00 20 years, is among interviewed experts. Besides, Iggy He spoke with Frank Mustaphe,
01:05 the director of Haworth HTL in Rwanda, who has worked in tourism and hospitality industry for
01:11 over 30 years in more than 25 countries around the world. Regarding hotels, he spoke with Mathias
01:17 Widow, the general manager of the Kigali Malliort Hotel, who has over 20 years of experience in
01:22 various countries. They all agree that Rwandans despise the tourism industry. Interviewees
01:27 maintained that Rwandans do not believe the sector can be pursued as a profession and observed that
01:32 mindsets might result into substandard services. You learn from school or the actual businesses.
01:39 Like for me myself, I never go to hospitality school. I learn from the restaurants.
01:48 But the second thing, which I think is more important, is here, the mindset.
01:55 The problem is I realize many people, young people, they are committed to make money,
02:05 but they are not committed to work. That is the biggest problem I see. Meaning, I have experienced
02:15 that many people, when my people interview them, they are all talking, "I will work hard, I will
02:24 do what, I will do what, I will learn." But when they get a job, that is another story.
02:31 Well, the hospitality sector is still very young in Rwanda, but it has massive potential. The young
02:37 workforce is eager to deliver, and if we are able to train them consistently, we will have
02:45 a very successful path ahead of us. The good thing in what we are seeing now is that a lot of Rwandese
02:52 who have been working abroad in the UAE and Europe are now starting to want to return to Rwanda,
03:00 and this will help to improve the guest experience and the guest delivery within the hospitality in
03:08 Rwanda. Yes, there are still many gaps, and there have been recent studies which again
03:16 reveal that there are gaps happening. The gaps are primarily in service, in service culture.
03:26 It is not a surprise, because tourism in Rwanda started, let's say, 20 years ago, 15 years ago.
03:33 I have seen already a lot of developments. As I have mentioned, I came here in 2012.
03:38 2012, there was one big international hotel and one handful of international standard restaurants.
03:48 Today, we find plenty of opportunities. So, it is still a very young hospitality industry.
03:55 However, the gaps in service are primarily, to a large extent, based on the fact that still
04:04 people, young people, are not understanding that the hospitality sector offers huge
04:10 employment and career opportunities. Many still see hospitality as a job, maybe sometimes as a
04:20 last resort, because they did not manage to get a job in the government or in an international
04:28 company. So, they are not willing to invest time into training, and it is more or less a kind of
04:37 interim job. So, they are not fully committed, and this leads to a lot of, let's say, negligence in
04:44 small details, which contribute to a picture that in many properties, restaurants, the service is
04:55 not really, not yet up to date. This gap is real, because they have experienced poor services in
05:00 some hotels and restaurants in Rwanda, which is embarrassing, because it should not be happening
05:05 in this country that is developing. I was in a nice hotel with two business partners,
05:13 and there was waste on the floor, and it wasn't cleaned up for more than an hour. So, then I just
05:23 talked to the manager and said, "Look, we have to clean it up a bit, etc." because I knew the place
05:30 very well, and then I said, "I will look for somebody." Instead of just picking it up, cleaning
05:38 it up, and it's done. I have not experienced very bad incidents, but things are not as good as I
05:52 expected some places. Sometimes it's like slow service, or people don't greet you, and very often
06:02 people don't smile. Let me share with you that when I used to work in a restaurant in Canada,
06:10 I worked in a few different restaurants in Canada, but everywhere I go, I was the top waiter.
06:19 First of all, a big smile is very important. You go, and I'm not telling you to pretend,
06:28 because it will be good to come from your heart. "Hello, how are you? How's your day?
06:36 What can I get you? It's hot outside. Can I get you a cold drink?" Things like that
06:44 you don't learn from a school or on a book, but think a bit more. Though they see a gap in the
06:51 tourism sector, they have advised that training and human empowerment is still needed in terms
06:56 of quality service offering. Billy keeps saying that Rwandese need training because serving a
07:01 client when you are happy does not require any form of education, except training from experts.
07:07 He shares this opinion with Mustafa and Mathias, who concur that Rwanda has developed in terms of
07:13 tourism and service sector, but still lacks intensive training on customer care.
07:18 Okay, as I mentioned, first of all, I think the management, the top people have to understand
07:30 that service is not a cost factor, and qualified people are not a cost factor.
07:34 It's an important precondition for success. In Germany, we say, "If you clean stairs,
07:44 you have to start on the top and then clean it from the top down." Otherwise, I definitely want
07:51 to encourage on all levels, the people in the industry to qualify more, to take the opportunities
08:02 But one major factor also, and I want to maybe talk about your previous questions one more time,
08:12 one more factor we can see all over the world is that the last two years have been very harsh on
08:17 the industry. The pandemic had a massive impact on our beautiful hospitality industry. A lot of
08:24 well-trained middle-class management people, associates have left the industry because of
08:30 the unsecurity. To survive, a lot of hotels have made cuts, and now it's time to re-establish
08:41 the pride in our industry as well. I think it goes back to what I said earlier, we need to
08:45 establish the pride in our industry, we need to establish the pride in serving, and it goes hand
08:53 in hand with two areas. One area is Rwandese coming back from working abroad, taking over
09:00 middle and higher management positions in the hospitality industry so that the young teams see
09:08 what is possible, and we need to work with the educational facilities within Rwanda, and I
09:18 include myself, I'm doing various trainings with them just to show them the passion about working
09:25 in the industry, and it's a beautiful industry. When you travel, it depends on what kind of
09:31 restaurant you go, it depends on the owner also. Actually, many people are complaining the portion
09:42 is too big, they can't finish. It depends on your target or the type of clientele that you are
09:56 looking at. There's nothing wrong with too small or too big, but what is important is to find a
10:05 balance. You cannot be very little and then you charge too high price, then it doesn't make sense.
10:12 To me, what is important, I will advise everybody, always put yourself in the shoes of the customers.
10:23 When I enter, what do you expect? Service, quality of the food, and of course at the end of the day,
10:32 your pocket, the price. So everything is important. So to have a successful business,
10:42 everything needs to work together. Rwanda is hosting CHOGM that will bring together many
10:47 different people all over the world. These professionals in customer care and hospitality
10:52 say Rwandans have the ability to host and give excellent services to the people. Rwanda is ready
10:58 and I don't have any doubt that it will be a very successful one. You can see right now,
11:03 a couple of weeks before the famous CHOGM will start, there's a lot of work going on,
11:10 a lot of developments all over infrastructure service, and it will be successful. I don't
11:18 have any doubt about this. Rwanda has proven that they can manage those events perfectly.
11:26 I also think it will be a success, not only the event itself, I'm sure that CHOGM will come with
11:35 a lot of past CHOGM impacts. Delegates, participants will come back for tourism,
11:48 for vacation, for a trip. Businesses will start, business people will come back to intensify
11:58 first contacts to follow up on opportunities discussed. So it will definitely help to
12:06 further increase tourism numbers, but also to increase investments in businesses. Because I
12:13 think that's also very important when we talk about tourism. Very often the picture is this,
12:20 yes, international tourists coming from all over the world visiting a place. As important as this
12:27 group is business tourism. MICE, the conference business, event business is a very famous sector,
12:37 which is a very important segment. Other segments are also the intra-Africa travel. So I think
12:46 there are still many opportunities which have potential for further growth.
12:53 Well, at this stage we need to keep training our associates, review processes, make sure we are
12:59 all well stocked, properly manned. There's a strong emphasis on following service aspects
13:07 to deliver remarkable service here at the Merit. One is reassure we are welcoming,
13:13 friendly and courteous. Number two, improve the product knowledge within all aspects of the hotel.
13:19 Number three, we need to be efficient and well timed. We need to be flexible. Number four,
13:25 consistency. There needs to be consistency along all our areas. Number five, we need to
13:31 communicate effectively. And last but not least, we need to instill trust between the customer and us
13:37 as servants. If we can consistently focus on these areas and criteria, we will be well equipped to
13:45 deliver a remarkable service experience during Chokom. It's a bit tight if you say, how are we
13:53 going to improve in a very short time. I think we have enough skillful people, in my opinion.
14:04 It's not like they don't know what to do. Like I mentioned earlier, it's here. And if they could
14:13 listen to me, that you walk with your eyes open, observe what is needed, be sensitive,
14:23 what is the situation, what people need it, that will be a very good thing that you can improve
14:33 right away. This one don't need training, because most people I see is not being sensitive.
14:42 You can not being sensitive or even ignorance, I don't know. It's like sometimes I can see people
14:51 walk by, there's a garbage, a piece of towel, napkins, that you just pick it up. But sometimes,
15:02 I'm not very sure, sometimes I would even think that they saw it, but they don't want to pick it.
15:09 So as simple as that, you know hospitality is details that count. I always tell them,
15:17 I have done my part, I have invested, I have put up a nice place, nice restaurant, but if the
15:24 software doesn't run well, and the software are those service details that people need to pay
15:33 attention to.