Tourism, hospitality stakeholders attend leadership summit

Jun 06, 2023

At the Smmit, discussions were focused around the industry challenges, opportunities and possibilities such as the need for tourism product development and diversification as a marketing tool to earn competitive advantage.

Tourism, hospitality stakeholders attend leadership summit

Ritah Mukasa
Journalist @New Vision

Over 100 tourism and hospitality professionals attended a three-day East Africa hospitality summit recently.

It was dubbed; Regional hospitality leadership summit Eastern Africa 2023 under the theme; Redefining Hospitality, Recovering for Future Growth.

It happened at Sarova White Sand Beach Resort and Spa in Mombasa, Kenya.

The attendants included; managing directors, general managers, operation managers and marketing managers.

Participants Listen Attentively

Participants Listen Attentively

Others in attendance were human resource managers, hospitality consultancy firms and training colleges plus chefs from hotels and tourism support services.

Enock Alumasi Makanga, the summit organizer, says this was the first edition of the Leadership Summit expo and conference.  Next year, the second edition will take place in any of the East African countries that will show interest.

Meanwhile, during the three-day summit, they discussed concerns in the hospitality business across East Africa.

Participants from Extreme Adventure Park Busiika, Hanze Hotels and Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) represented Uganda.

At The Summit

At The Summit

Kenya had participants from hotels, hospitality colleges, spas, consultancies and government officials as well.

Andrew Alikuluya, an executive chef from Extreme Adventure Park Busiika says they discussed the industry challenges, opportunities and possibilities such as the need for tourism product development and diversification as a marketing tool to earn competitive advantage.

Human resource issues were also key. For example, they looked at concerns of graduates from training institutions, training models and necessities of the job market, wrong skills in the wrong positions and limited freedom of managers to make decisions based on expertise.

“We networked and deliberated on how the industry is recovering from the COVID 19 Pandemic,” he says.

Other aspects included; succession plan, use of technology to improve performance, reduce operational expenses, and globalize the products and services offered.

“I also highlighted the need for sustainable food cuisine as the new norm. This is also referred to as; from the farm to the table cuisine, or farm to fork,” Alikuluya says.

Comments

No Comment


(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});