TGCSA sets out to modernise grading

THE Tourism Grading
Council of South Africa
(TGCSA) is working on
a new technology system
that will integrate a variety of
online travel reviews with the
tradtional grading system. The
project will launch in the next
couple of months.
The new technolgoy will
enable the TGCSA to search
the web and access all
online travel reviews of
graded establishments
from various travel review
platforms, including TripAdvisor
and various social media.
The reviews will then be
integrated into the TGCSA’s
grading system and provide
it with a comprehensive view
of establishments’ quality
experience offerings.
Thekiso Rakolojane, TGCSA
marketing and communications
manager, told TNW: “While
the TGCSA’s grading criteria
and minimum requirements of
entry evaluates the tangible
offerings of an establishment,
the online reviews will provide
access to their service related
offerings.”
A lot has been said and
written about the irrelevance
of grading in a world that is
all about online user reviews
and instant gratification,
Graham Wood, chairperson
of the TGCSA, said at Indaba,
which took place in Durban
this month. “The existing
grading system is the objective
assessment of whether
establishments are providing
the right quality experience.
Nowhere does the grading
system integrate what our
guests actually say about the
experience.”
In “real life” a five-star
graded hotel may well offer a
substandard experience from a
service delivery perspective. Or
a three-star graded hotel could
be delivering a five-star service
experience, he said. “The
experience is also relevant to
the quality the establishment
delivers. That is why for the
next 12 months, we’ll run a
pilot that will look at how we
are going to integrate the
opportunity of online consumer
reviews with our physical
objective grading system.”
Minister of Tourism Derek
Hanekom added: “The value
of a grading system is selfevident.
We’re dealing with a
very competitive environment,
so quality assurance and
service excellence, reliability,
the integrity of a quality
assurance system, are
critically important. Twenty
years ago, [travellers] would
go back home and talk to
their friends and family about
[their experience]. Now it’s
communicated instantly to the
whole world.”