Starting 1 July 2010 and ending 30 September 2011, the Hospitality Assured Certification for the Caribbean programme seeks to actively encourage tourism and hospitality business in the Caribbean to gain Hospitality Assured certification by putting in place well developed service ideals, values and principles that support a culture of excellence
TARGET GROUP
Eighty (80) Caribbean tourism enterprises in eight (8) pilot countries in the Caribbean which are: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica and
Trinidad and Tobago.
OVERALL OBJECTIVE
To promote a culture of quality, service excellence and continuous improvement in the Caribbean, which are driven by international standards and certification, in order to strengthen the business performance and overall competitiveness of tourism enterprises in the region.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
* To enhance the capacity of CTO in introducing and institutionalizing the service quality management certification system which will allow Caribbean tourism enterprises to be
more responsive to the needs and expectations of their key customers, thereby creating customer satisfaction and customer loyalty and improving their overall business
performance and profitability.
* To engender greater confidence on the part of customers purchasing the products and services provided by Caribbean tourism businesses.
* To develop and execute a marketing/promotional plan for Hospitality Assured which will actively sell the benefits of the programme and provide the necessary impetus for the
programme to be widely adopted in the region.
* To gather and provide comparative data and analyse the companies involved in the programme to allow them to benchmark their performance against other companies in the
region.
* To prepare the participating companies for external assessment and help them gain the Hospitality Assured certification.
MAIN ACTIVITIES
* Putting in place a service quality management system called Hospitality Assured in approximately eighty (80) Caribbean companies.
* Developing and executing a marketing plan for Hospitality Assured.
* Collecting benchmarking data on the participating companies, utilizing the services of the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados.
* Organizing a one-day seminar to critically review feedback on the Hospitality Assured Certification programme.
PROJECT FACTS
Total Project Cost: €1,061,795
EU Contribution: €895,145
Duration: 15 months -- (01st July 2010 to 30th September 2011)
Project Lead: Caribbean Tourism Organization
Partners Caribbean Society of Hotel Association Executives (CSHAE); Ministries and Board of Tourism in the eight (8) pilot countries
OAS
The Organization of American States (OAS) has supported the Hospitality Assured programme in the training of business advisors and assessors. OAS currently provides funding to small tourism/hospitality businesses, with under 60 employees, to meet 50% of the cost of the external assessment.