Africa-Press – Rwanda. Rwanda Development Board fined Hilltop hotel a Rwf 300,000 and closed it for a month following reports of poor service delivery during the just concluded Tour du Rwanda.
According to local media reports, some reptiles had appeared in the rooms of the visitors who were among the players attending Tour du Rwanda 2022.
However, after the sanctions, more people took to social media to comment on service delivery in Rwanda and its core aspects.
Most experts, university lecturers in the hospitality industry who talked to this paper indicate that more investment should be considered to scale up the service delivery in Rwanda.
Jerome Iradukunda, the Dean of Studies at the University of Tourism and Business lauds the level of Rwanda’s development in the tourism hospitality sector.
“Since a couple of years ago, we have been the host of international meetings, and some global brands of international hospitality groups have joined us in Rwanda, all of which can rarely be found in the East African region,” he recalled.
However, he is disappointed by the fact that less investment is still visible in more hospitality establishments, hence encouraging more unprofessional behaviors.
“A manager in a hotel is paid less money compared to other managers in banks and most other businesses. This makes those who went to hospitality groups join other professions and as the hospitality sector, we register more losses,” he added.
The same views are echoed by Carolyn Imali, a hospitality management instructor.
She also makes case for the low wages in the hospitality sector which causes its enthusiasts to shun away from the career.
Imalu indicates that the wages for the hospitality industry, especially the low level positions are wanting.
“When these people get a chance to go work out of the country or in other offers, they mostly join them”.
We have a lot of skilled Rwandese citizens who can greatly improve this industry, she continues, however they know the pay in the hospitality sector is minimal and they would rather continue in other careers.
A hospitality student, Donah Mutangana also emphasizes that poor service delivery is often due to lack of investment in human capital in order to professionalize the field.
“There should be a robust way of retaining hospitality students in the field, because once the career is practiced by those who did not undertake the same courses in schools, the reputation can go bad,” she expressed.
Reports indicate that Rwanda received over 36,000 tourists from abroad who led to an income of Rwf 121 million in 2020, a trend that was disturbed by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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