The Tourism Grading Council of South Africa (TGCSA) made its mark on the Zambian tourism landscape recently, when it assisted the country’s tourism agency to develop a grading system.

Thanks to bilateral agreements between South Africa and Zambia, TGCSA has been assisting Zambia since 2017 to develop a project to grade all hotels in the country, and improve service delivery in the hospitality industry.

The Zambian Tourism Agency (ZTA) currently has 32 grading assessors, who received a five-day training session from TGCSA last month, covering theory and practical assessments, and concluded with an exam.

“Through learning and being guided and supported by TGCSA, we not only benefit as a tourism body, but as a country as a whole. With South Africa’s robust, relevant and consistent grading programme as a benchmark, we can benefit the local tourism authority by improving service delivery, and we can boost local travel, increase morale, and drive more tourism to our country,” said Felix Chaila, CEO of ZTA.

As a result of the partnership, Zambia now has a pool of qualified assessors who are ready to grade tourism establishments. Grading will provide tourists with a reasonable indication of expected services and offerings and help travellers find accommodation of good standard and offers value for money.

Darryl Erasmus, Chief Quality Assurance and Chief Experience Officer at TGCSA, said collaborative tourism efforts between African countries could only assist in improving the continent’s quality positioning and market share when it came to global tourist numbers. Erasmus, who visited Zambia in December for initial engagements and to provide grading guidelines, said by advancing all countries from a tourism point of view, the entire continent wins. “It has been wonderful to join hands with ZTA, who are not only committed to drive service delivery standards in their own country, but also to increase tourism arrivals and a traveller’s experience in Zambia. We look forward to further collaboration and joining of hands with our African partners to ensure growth in our continent.”