Backpackers hostels, restaurants, caravan parks and a host of other tourism-related businesses in South Africa will soon be rated in terms of a star grading scheme similar to that used by hotels, the Tourism Grading Council of SA said on Monday.
The council’s executive director Dr Salifou Siddo said the grading system would rate tourism businesses from five to one star, thus helping both local and foreign tourists identify excellence when touring the country.
The Council has appointed consulting firm Grant Thornton Kessel Feinstein to manage the development of star grading criteria for the various sub-sectors, in conjunction with industry bodies.
”The grading criteria for the first six sub-sectors will be available within six months, after which establishments within these sub-sectors can apply to be graded against the new criteria,” Siddo said.
The sub-sectors that will be graded are backpackers and hostelling, caravan parks and camping, conference venues, food and beverage facilities, tourist transport service providers, tour operators, tourism retailers, attractions and travel agents.
”The grading scheme will be different from that which we established for the accommodation sector but it will use a star system. So you could, for instance, have a five-star conference centre.
”We promised that once we had finalised the accommodation grading system we would extend grading to other sub-sectors and that is what we are now doing. Ideally, we would like to grade the entire tourism offering,” Siddo said.
”The new criteria will be developed with input from sub-sector representatives, but will be from a customer’s point of view in terms of required quality standards,” said Lee-Anne Bac, a director at Grant Thornton Kessel Feinstein.
The Tourism Grading Council is a public-private partnership that was set up with a mandate from Environment and Tourism Minister Valli Moosa to develop a new grading system after the old scheme
lost credibility and collapsed in 1998.
The council established a new one-to-five star grading scheme for accommodation — including hotels, guest houses, bed-and-breakfasts, lodges and self-catering destinations — last year and more than 1 000 establishments are now registered and graded.
In terms of the scheme, South Africa has 101 five star
establishments.
The Council set up a star system because it was internationally recognised and locally understood.
”A domestic or international traveller to New York, for instance, would recognise what a five-star hotel is. We wanted to fit in with international best practice which reflects South Africa reality,” Siddo said. – Sapa