Warning to the hotel industry by the Ministry of tourism

The ministry of tourism gave a clear warning to the hotel industry by issuing a statement that the hotels not respecting the standards in the industry and not committed to the improvement of the quality of services will be subject to disciplinary actions and to the extreme the closing of the hotels.

It is, I believe, a long awaited reaction that should be treated with the most seriousness and strictness. Indeed, so many hotels do not operate in a professional manner; a lot of these hotels think that the business is all about giving a room with a bed, hot water, air conditioner and a T.V set. As a matter of fact, that is the basic of the hotel business product that must not even be mentioned when selling the product (it is as if you were selling a car and you are mentioning that it does have a steering wheel, a gear, a brake, a clutch, an accelerator and so on), the services and the value added products are what makes the difference and makes the experience for the guests enjoyable. The aim of the government is to make of the hotel and tourism industry the main provider of hard foreign currency to the economy, and to achieve that we must raise the quality (be it in term of products, services or human resources) and have a serious follow up so that the tourists and business travellers spend more while having at the same time the right ratio of quality/price. Madagascar is reputed to be an expensive destination, so let’s give the travellers the quality they are expecting.

However, this can only be possible with the help of the ministry; they should state clearly what are the standards of quality and services they are expecting from each hotel of each category. Furthermore, an independent and powerful board of quality control should be set up with the main task to periodically check the hotels (and not just every once in a while).