Both the government and stakeholders are rather optimistic that the waiters’ race is a key option to improve service delivery and customer care in the tourism and hotel sector.
The race which engages the waiters and waitresses from hotels and restaurants in the country in a five kilometer fast walking race carrying a serving tray with a bottle and two glassful of beer is aimed at helping the participants to be fast and effective while delivering services to customers.
Rica Rwigamba the head of Tourism and Conservation at Rwandan Development board (RDB) says that such competitions if fully promoted will help improve the service delivery which has rendered difficulty in the fast tracking of the sector especially the hospitality section.
“Customer service is essential for tourism to grow and prosper; such races improve the service delivery in the industry,” she further added, “in the long run this should be an initiative of all stakeholders to put up such competitions and should not be once a year but regularly and the government is committed to supporting them”, she said while handing over cash and trophies of the winning participants at Top tower hotel on Sunday.
The tourism boss also noted that waiters and waitresses play a crucial role in the sector and thus a need to be recognized and commended for their efforts.
“For a person to decide the hotel to go to depends on the service delivery but the hotels are just structures and waiters are the image and the force for their hotels they work in. It shows how important their job is,” she said adding that the race is important to the sector and that’s why RDB is supporting the initiative.
This race is meant to encourage service providers in hotels for instance to be fast. What is more the competition is also used to recognize the best waiter/waitress in the city,’ said the managing director of Rwanda High Development- RHD, Diana Ramarohetra who is also the organizer of the race.
Ramarohetra further pointed out that since the competition’s inception last year, progress has been seem among hotel severs especially those who have participated in the race.
Vicent Nzigira the assistant food and beverage manager at Serana Hotel which won this year’s race trophy said that the competition helps them to rate their staff on efficiency and fastness in serving customers.
This year, Lemigo hotel’s Sandrine emerged the winner while Mupenzi Ferician from Serena emerged the best waiter with Serena taking it for the second consecutive time.
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