New system aims to restore tourism sector’s fading glory

Kenya: Kenyan tourism has been adversely affected by shortage of foreign tourists following travel advisories issued by United Kingdom and United States of America due to terror threats that have hit the country in the recent past.

A close look at some of the most visited hotels at the Kenyan South Coast reveals a grim picture of the ailing industry. The sad state of affairs even led President Uhuru Kenyatta to launch a campaign to promote domestic tourism to compliment the already scarce tourists from abroad.

The Tripartite International Labor Organization (ILO) that deals with Employers, Workers and Government has moved with speed to mitigate this crisis by introduction of a project, Sustaining Competitive and Responsible Enterprise(SCORE)  in the tourism industry. The new system is in its pilot stage with three hotels at the Coast – Diani Sea Resort, Diani Reef Hotel and Msambweni Beach House being the beneficiaries.

Diani Sea Resort

When we visited Diani Sea Resort, resting on a 10-acre piece of land and with a 340-bed capacity, only 60 visitors’ had booked-in. With the few tourists, the directors of the Welcome-Inn group of hotels had contemplated to let go most of their 175 staff. But to our surprise a small ceremony of the staff was conducted awarding the SCORE-Champion.

During the SCORE awards ceremony at Diani Sea Resort, an employee was awarded a certificate for giving suggestions to help the management in cutting down on costs.  Through SCORE, the staff were able to interact with the management on a personal level. Security officer, Augustine Kiangi was awarded for his outstanding contribution.

“This SCORE system has made me even to interact frequently with my senior staff, I am a junior staff at security section and my suggestions were recognised when we reduced on energy consumption in this Hotel, I am happy I was able to talk to management about the best way to reduce on energy”.

Kiangi advised the management to install CCTV cameras in the hotel to improve on the security and also suggested ways that saw the company reduce its energy consumption by 26%.

According to Samson Masha, General Manager, Diani Sea Resort, “employees are encouraged to be part of the project by suggesting, in writing, ways on how the hotel can reduce on basic services usage like energy”.

Sustaining Competitive and Responsible Enterprise (SCORE) project was started in May 2014 by SCORE trainer Pauline, who noted how Diani Sea Resort was a stable employer with almost nil labor turnovers, according to their baseline survey.

Sheila Njeri an Assistant Manager at the Sea Resort echoed her sentiments, “The SCORE makes one motivated because management appreciates and implements our suggestions. The management system has changed from bottom up”. 

Compard Harald, Director, Sea Resort, appreciated SCORE “We want to implement employees’ ideas on sustainable tourism which may be done now or in the future. All suggestions are important”.

Msambweni Beach House

Our second stop was at the Msambweni Beach House, a similar story is replicated. It is established on a 28-acre piece of land and about 35-minutes drive from Diani Airstrip. The resort maintains the old-Swahili decor and its hospitality and ambiance are breathtaking.  Overlooking the Indian Ocean, Msambweni Beach house offers a perfect private holiday with personalised service. 

At Msambweni, it was not a smooth ride for Dr. Anthony Pepela - a SCORE trainer who says “In the beginning, the staff were skeptical but after training, they realised SCORE was meant for their own good”.

The SCORE system here has helped the staff in terms of communication while passing information from the staff to management and also helped them bond and unite.

The suggestion box is no longer used as a victimization tool but as a way to communicate, Emmanuel Vumbi adding “With training of the SCORE on suggestion box staff are now free to communicate their views, making communication easy and help in bridging the gap between the Management and junior staff”.

An interesting concept was birthed where the staff have one collective tip box where they share the tips among the staff on duty that day. Msambweni has seen a major reduction on their water, laundry and power costs to 30% through Sustaining Competitive and Responsible Enterprise (SCORE) system. 

Msambweni’s Operations Manager Terry Simiyu  adding“ SCORE has come at the right time since we are really trying to reduce the cost and increase income, reduction of the costs is helping us ensure that our spending is low at least we are able to survive and keep most of the staff on their job”.

In enhancing efficiency at the Beach House, SCORE has helped change their tactics in giving personalised services including labeling of items in the kitchen and laundry rooms. They also came up with a unique vertical vegetable garden for ease of getting fresh vegetables for their clients since the nearest town is 40-minutes drive away.

Diani Reef Beach Resort and Spa

Our last stop was Diani Reef Beach Resort and Spa. Here a magnificent hotel stands on a 35-acre piece of of land. The hotel boasts of two large pools and an exotic Rasoul Spa rated 2nd best in Africa.

Diani Reef has a workforce of 187 and 28 temporary employees. Reef is currently embracing mechanisms to keep afloat with the hope that Kenyans will embrace domestic tourism to fill the 143 bed capacity. The SCORE implementation took a down turn after it was first introduced in May this year. Most of the staff had to take their leave since the hotel industry was facing a harsh economic time.

Here the SCORE trainer Millicent Mwangi held the fort despite the setbacks faced and had to retrain a fresh a new group and in less than a month the hotel has seen remarkable improvement and changes. The engineering department where many would get injuries while has recorded nil injuries in a month.

The Laundry department was one that was chaotic and is grateful to the SCORE system since room is now well kept and the mix-up of staff and client laundry has been sorted with a lot of labeling and separate room allocation. The Laundry Manager, Nancy Mwachia lauds the effort “Before we used to wash one or true items but now we are able to save on detergent and power by ensuring the load is 60kgs before it is laundered”

The communication between the staff and employer is changing with the use of well labeled notice boards. “Motivation of the staff of staff increased due to open communication system with the management by use of Suggestion boxes.”

Human Resource Manager Violet Ndubi is optimistic things will change in the hotel industry “Revenue generation is a major challenge right now with the travels advisories. But we are grateful to the UK government for lifting the Ban we hope to have an influx of both domestic and foreign tourists”.