+27 (0)79 505 8841
WB Consulting - Crafting Successful Brands
  • Home
  • About us
    • Resumes >
      • Wilna Beukes
      • Natalie Sokolich
  • Services
    • Website Design
    • Email Marketing and Newsletter Management
  • Clients
  • Contact
    • Newsletter subscribe
  • Blog

Is a fair grading system for Game Lodges finaly here?

7/20/2011

0 Comments

 
The Tourism Grading Council of South Africa (TGCSA) has announced that it is planning to create a separate Game Lodge category in its revised grading system.

Thekiso Rakolojane, Marketing & Communications Manager at TGCSA, says during the consultation process to finalise the current grading criteria, all lodges were given an opportunity to provide feedback on the existing criteria. “The feedback allowed us to amend the existing criteria according to industry requirements. It also informed us of the fact that it was crucial for a separate game lodge category to be created. We have just gone out on tender to find the right partner to assist us with the consultation with the game lodge industry.”

Industry players claim the current system of grading game lodges in South Africa is vastly inaccurate as it doesn’t reflect the game lodge experience as a whole. The TGCSA has always classified the lodge category under “a formal accommodation facility providing full or limited services, located in natural surroundings beyond that of the immediate garden area”. For an establishment to be graded in this category it had to have an activity linked to the accommodation establishment (either a game drive, wildlife etc.). The star rating was, however, only based on the accommodation establishment and not the activity.

Allison Kennedy, md Game Lodge Destinations, says: “I personally don’t feel that the current grading system is honest and true to the game lodge industry. There are five-star game lodges and then there are true five-star game lodges. To me, the lodges should also be graded on the quality of their guides, vehicle seating capacity, traversing size of land and wildlife, game drive snacks etc. – not only on the accommodation aspect.”

Herbie Rosenberg, AfricaReps, says this debate has been ongoing for the past 15 years. “About 15 years ago I sat on the grading committee as a director of Sabi Sabi Game Reserve and these were precisely the issues that were raised.” Rosenberg cites the example of a ‘back to basics’ tented camp in the Timbavati. “This simply cannot be star graded based on the accommodation but the experience of the guest is beyond five star,” he says.

Grading lodges according to their own criteria would be ideal but it is also unrealistic, says Jackie Diack, marketing and reservations Tau Game Lodge. “Game loges offer a completely different experience from a hotel and therefore should be judged completely differently, but the practicality and reality of the situation make this a difficult distinction.” She explains that there are too many external factors influencing a game experience, such as weather conditions and seasons as well as environmental factors such as, for example, a recent fire. “Simply including quality of sightings would make the grader’s job very complicated or require him to trust information supplied by the lodge or park itself, which would then lessen the objectivity of his final evaluation."

Grading game viewing is just too subjective as a lot has to do with luck, says Brett Thomson, marketing director Africa on Foot. “Advertising a five-star game viewing experience is setting yourself up for a lot of issues.” According to Thomson, there needs to be more education for guests of what the game viewing and wildlife experience is.

For others, the entire star grading system is obsolete.Chris McIntyre, md Expert Africa, says: “I view grading systems as things that were really useful 30 years ago when there was often no other info available about a place than its grading.” He says potential visitors can now find details of almost any lodge, with comments, pictures and traveller reviews on any one of dozens of Internet sites. “I’d like to see the whole thing scrapped so that hoteliers can spend their time and money improving their visitors’ experience rather than worrying if they will tick enough boxes to gain a certain star rating.”

Rakolojane admits that the former grading system was confusing and set false expectations. “Due to its inconsistency and vagueness, assessors were able to interpret it as they saw fit, which resulted in differing levels of quality within graded establishments. The current grading system seeks to correct that very problematic practice.” He says the new system will bring uniformity and credibility to the grading system and will thus impact positively on tourism.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Wilna's Blog

    Staying relevant, delighting guests & crafting successful brands excites me.

    Here is a collection of articles that have interested me - definitely not all written by me, but all personally read and found by me!

    I hope you find them informative too!

    Categories

    All
    Advertising
    Brand
    Humour
    Leadership
    Marketing
    Motivational
    Namibian Insights
    Online Bookings
    Online Trends
    Self Improvement
    Service
    Social Networks
    Time Management
    Travel Agents
    Travel Trends

    Picture
    Thought Salad! 
     our monthly newsletter. 
    Subscribe HERE

    RSS Feed

    View my profile on LinkedIn

    Archives

    March 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011


Home
Services

About us
Contact 

Resumes
Clients
Web Design
Blog

Photos used under Creative Commons from Martin Cathrae, Andrew Stawarz, laura padgett, Dave Dugdale