More than 2000 hotels have been registered by the Akwa Ibom State government in a renewed bid to streamline hospitality business and ensure the safety of tourists in the state.
Commissioner for Culture and Tourism in the state, Mr Orman Esin made this known on Thursday at a two day “Hotel Managers” conference organized by a Lagos based hospitality form, Tojun Hospitality in Uyo.
Esin charged participant to establish a feedback mechanism for development and improvement of Hotels and their operations in Nigeria while government establish regulations to curb substandard service delivery and non professionalism.
” This conference is indeed very timely and I wish to commend the Organizers for carefully selecting the theme of the conference as this are critical factors to building of a profile performance work culture and ensuring measurable revenue generation is achieved for the sustenance of the hotel business”
” There is dire need to address the basic tenets of Hotel Sales which is key to ensuring efficient management and sustainability of the Hotel as well as introduce new innovation to ensure that best and standards in our hotels are kept”
In a goodwill message, Chairman of Akwa Ibom State Hotels Management and Tourism Board Mr Ini Akpabio said experience acquired at the conference would place Hotel Managers on a higher pedestal for service delivery.
Akpabio regretted that some investors in the hospitality industry claim to be more knowledgeable in hospitality rather than recruiting and training managers to become professionals .
“Hotel investors now claim to be well experienced Hotel Managers . Once he has money to establish a hotel, he feels he knows the best to do in hospitality business and throw all sanity and professionalism to the dogs.
” For the fact that you invest in a Hotel business does not qualify you to be a professional . Therefore both the investors and Managers need some certification to perform in line with International standard and best practice obtainable in the hospitality industry.” He explained.
The chairman said the Board would soon commence the training of hotel managers in the state to meet with International standard and procedures in hospitality sector.
” Guidelines will be handed out to Hotel Manager as operations manual in the state to qualify Akwa Ibom as a destination point for tourists.”
Convener of the conference and Team Lead ” Tojum Hospitality”, Mr Olugbenga Sunday said the conference was the third in it’s series with resource persons drawn from Academia, Hospitality and Tourism Industries and involved participants from Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, United Kingdom and other parts of the world.
“There is a big gap between International hospitality brands and Indigenous brands both in administrative and general operations standard.
“Hotel Managers Conference is a platform where Hotel managers , owners , Managing Directors , Consultants , General Managers and Head of Departments are privileged to meet with Hospitality Experts with Global Relevance and draw timely knowledge for professional exploit.” He said
