By Masembe Tambwe,
Daily News.
THE first hospitality roundtable conference took place 10-11 November 2014 in Dar es Salaam that provided professionals in the field with a forum to discuss challenges and opportunities they face on a day-to-day basis and to learn from best practices of their peers.
The organizer of the roundtable and Chief Executive Officer, Hospitality Design Partnership (HDP), Mr Meelis Kuuskler said that with international and domestic investors recognizing the rich potential in Tanzania, it was really the time for those in the industry to discuss how Tanzania can best foster a sustainable hospitality industry, build lasting and mutually beneficial partnerships and build a pipeline for success.
"It is our aim that the hospitality roundtable will grow into a memorable important conference in the African hospitality industry and to that end, I am especially grateful to the fantastic network of people who have contributed their expertise, talents and time to the event this year," he said during the opening of the discussion.
Putting meat on the skeleton on the rich potential of the industry, according to a presentation by Viability Hospitality Consultants, there are a number of brand hotels that are coming in Tanzania including Hyatt Regency Arusha with 144 rooms destined to be opened in 2016, Colosseum (90 rooms) and Ramada Resort Dar es Salaam (136 rooms) for this year. Others are Dar es Salaam Rotana (200) for 2018, the Best Western chain in Zanzibar with 26 rooms in 2014, Four Seasons Resort Zanzibar with 73 rooms to be announced, Double Tree by Hilton Stone Town 58 rooms in 2014 and Park Hyatt Stone Town 72 in 2015.
The organizer of the roundtable and Chief Executive Officer, Hospitality Design Partnership (HDP), Mr Meelis Kuuskler said that with international and domestic investors recognizing the rich potential in Tanzania, it was really the time for those in the industry to discuss how Tanzania can best foster a sustainable hospitality industry, build lasting and mutually beneficial partnerships and build a pipeline for success.
"It is our aim that the hospitality roundtable will grow into a memorable important conference in the African hospitality industry and to that end, I am especially grateful to the fantastic network of people who have contributed their expertise, talents and time to the event this year," he said during the opening of the discussion.
Putting meat on the skeleton on the rich potential of the industry, according to a presentation by Viability Hospitality Consultants, there are a number of brand hotels that are coming in Tanzania including Hyatt Regency Arusha with 144 rooms destined to be opened in 2016, Colosseum (90 rooms) and Ramada Resort Dar es Salaam (136 rooms) for this year. Others are Dar es Salaam Rotana (200) for 2018, the Best Western chain in Zanzibar with 26 rooms in 2014, Four Seasons Resort Zanzibar with 73 rooms to be announced, Double Tree by Hilton Stone Town 58 rooms in 2014 and Park Hyatt Stone Town 72 in 2015.
According to the World Travel and Tourism Council Tanzania 2014 Report, in 2013, Travel & Tourism's total contribution to the global economy rose to 9.5 per cent of global GDP (US $7 trillion), not only outpacing the wider economy, but also growing faster than other significant sectors such as financial and business services, transport and manufacturing. In total, nearly 266 million jobs were supported by Travel & Tourism in 2013 - 1 in 11 of all jobs in the world.
The sustained demand for Travel & Tourism, together with its ability to generate high levels of employment continues to prove the importance and value of the sector as a tool for economic development and job creation. The outlook for Travel & Tourism in 2014 is also very positive, with Total Travel & Tourism GDP growth forecast to reach 4.3 per cent.
Much of this growth is being driven by higher consumer spending as the recovery from recession gathers pace and is becoming firmly established. "Tourists are expected to spend more per trip and stay longer on their holidays in 2014, while long haul travel, especially among the European markets, is also expected to gain a greater share of international tourism demand.
Profitability for travel companies should also start to edge up, bringing opportunities for further job creation in the process," the report read in part. At the roundtable there were some interesting discussions, others heated and others not. They revolved around the state of industry, how to enter and stay in the industry, the ABCs of how to develop a hotel, the value of human capital, the role of PR in hospitality developments and operations, ICT applications and its impact, how to develop successful partnerships as well as the driving revenue of food and beverages.
One of the topics that brought a very interesting discussion was that of the value of human capital and one of the things that the participants pondered on was why students who graduate from the string of tourism colleges in the country fail to get employed in the hotels that are in the country where the hotels often prefer graduates from neighboring countries.
Before the debate ensued, the Zanzibar Institute of Tourism Development Head of Department of Hospitality Training, Ms Maryam Ali Mussa, gave a presentation on the value of human capital saying that when the global clove market dwindled, the Revolutionary government of Zanzibar made purposeful efforts to boost the national economy through tourism as a second major national income source, thus the need to establish a training centre in tourism and hospitality serves emerged.
Ms Mussa cited the major challenges facing the industry as being diversification of courses in wellness and spa, water sports, tour operating and guiding, in the field of airfare and ticketing, hospitality management at higher levels, limitation in communication skills in English, Spanish, French, Italian, Chinese, German and Arabic.
"Other areas affecting the upgrading of staff like the training at master level in the hospitality industry, exposure of staff to professional best practices in reputable hotel and training institutions," she said. Taking the cue of lack of exposure, Mr Kuuskler who has over 20 years experience in the field said that this is something seriously lacking in the country particularly in the training colleges because while it is easy to teach a student how to answer phones and carry a tray, without ever having practiced and worked in reputable hotels it is difficult to teach someone how to always humble, smile all the time and be a quick problem solver as the industry necessitates.
Mr Kuuskler said that the hospitality industry is about giving a visitor an experience that will last a lifetime and one that will compel them to come back again and again and therefore to be abreast at this, for a person working in the restaurant, they must be able to propose and give reasons what is the dish of the day because they have personally sampled everything on the menu and know the ingredients of everything.
More info about Hospitality Roundtable 2014, Tanzania:www.hospitalityroundtabletz.com or Info@hdpartnership.com
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