KIGALI - Hotel owners, managers, caterers and tour operators, have requested for more training in customer care so as to boost the tourism industry in Rwanda.

They made the call, yesterday, while meeting the regional lawmakers from the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) to assess regional projects and programmes in the tourism and wildlife sector.

"We want more training in customer care because it is one of the leading challenges in the hospitality industry of our country,” said Joshua Mugenzi, the Vice President of Rwanda Hotels and Restaurants Association.

He added that they are committed to playing a big role in developing the tourism industry by ensuring a well-functioning hotels and restaurants industry.
 "We plan to collaborate with Kenya Hotel Keepers’ Association to see how we can improve customer care by learning from one another other.

We want to take hotel owners on a study tour to Kenya,” he told the EALA members.

Mugenzi explained that most hotel owners take it as a private business yet this is public business that receives various kinds of people from all over the world.
Abdul Karim Harelimana, who led the delegation of EALA members, told the stakeholders that customer care is core for their business.

"There is need to develop hotels by emphasising training on customer care because it is one of the factors that boost the growth of tourism industry,” he noted.
Harelimana remarked that the  industry is one of the country’s top earners but some hotels do not value it.

Joshua Ibrahim, the Director of Foeyes Premier Hotel, said that the language barrier is also a big challenge to hoteliers and needs to be addressed as well.

He requested the legislators to deliberate more on how to enhance the development of the industry in the EAC partner states.

The "on the spot assessment” of legislators took place concurrently in Bujumbura, Kigali and Kampala on March 2-4, other EALA members toured Arusha and Zanzibar.

The tour is part of the oversight function of EALA on the implementation of various programmes and projects of the EAC.

Ends