STAR grading review reported

Thembi Kunene, chief quality assurance officer, said it was enormously encouraging to see more than 200 INDABA delegates attend the Stakeholder Breakfast event in Durban. "We have all collectively invested a significant amount of time and energy in fine-tuning the criteria to get them right for this industry so that South Africa can maintain its international competitiveness as a tourist destination."

Disparities had entered the system

The existing grading criteria were originally introduced in 2002, and were used to promote the grading system, which currently has in excess of 8000 accommodation establishments across South Africa. "Over the years, disparities had entered the grading system and there was a growing lack of uniformity and consistency in the awarding of star grading. This resulted in lack of predictability in the standards and facilities offered by graded establishments in South Africa."

The review of the grading criteria was one of the key recommendations resulting from a comprehensive review of the TGCSA by KPMG in August 2008, which was benchmarked against the British, Australian and New Zealand quality-assurance systems.

Support from major stakeholders

Kunene said: "The incredible support we received from the major stakeholders, specifically the FEDHASA family of members, other associations (SATSA, BABASA, etc) as well as the current Accredited Grading Assessors, is helping us meet the very tight deadlines towards the planned implementation of 1 October, 2010."

Under the leadership of its chairman, Clifford Ross, FEDHASA Group Hotels Sub-Committee will be providing the TGCSA with consolidated comments on the grading criteria. Thereafter, KPMG will then consolidate all comments received and present the final document to the TGCSA for approval by the Awards Committee meeting at its June 2010 meeting.

Progress made

According to Mmatšatši Marobe, CEO of the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA): "The TBCSA has been fully supportive of the Grading Council since its inception. We are pleased to see the progress made in terms of not only the new grading criteria, of which our members have been vocal in their commentary they provided to the TGCSA, but also the various critical initiatives. We do believe that this will secure South Africa's competitiveness as a tourist destination.