To raise service quality in tourist infrastructure, Georgian National Tourism Administration creates a quality ensurance center. This Center is a part of strategy of the newly appointed head of GNTA, Girogi Sigua.
The Center will aim at the service quality control at all tourism-related units across the country. To discuss the initiative, a meeting of GNTA and representatives of leading Georgian hotels, restaurant networks as well as donor organizations was held on July 22, 2013. The action plan of GNTA on service quality improvement was presented during the event. GNTA suggested setting up a basement of organizations [in tourism] with quality mark, also involve the public sector in the initiative as much as possible and different phases of the project of the quality assessment system were under the spotlights. The overwhelming majority of the meeting accentuated that the service level rated much below the par in Georgia is one of the major encumbrances to tourism development in Georgia. GNTA presumes that the management of tourism infrastructure like hotels, restaurants etc. have to undertake steps including trainings to improve their service level. General Manager of Holiday Inn, Valeri Chekhelia, stressed that there is a deficit of personnel in Georgia, they cannot get already skilful professionals and need to retrain their staff as a rule for a long period. He also drew attention to the fact that the job of waiter/waitress is underappreciated in Georgia and they had to take personnel from Tbilisi to the hotel to Kazbegi, high mountainous tourism venue of Georgia, as far as none of the local population appeared willing to undertake the job. Chekhelia recommends making this job popular. General Manger of Radisson believes the solution to the said problem is drafting a long-term state strategy. The accent also fell on the recent governmental initiative to finance by 100% the professional education involving preparation of specialists for the hotel and other service business. To make the service sector popular Sigua finds apt to prepare a cycle of TV shots where famous people as well as governmental officials will act as waitresses and waiters or any other service-related occupation in the staged scenes. “We should make the job prestigious and train the mentality in general that labor is not a shame,” he said. Sigua also thinks to create an internet shop in tourism where tourists will be able to choose hotels and different tourist organizations based on their service quality. One of the tools of the quality control will be an official disguised as a guest at hotels. Such meetings between the state and public sector in tourism will be held regularly. GNTA is ready to work on creation of the standard evaluation and monitoring system in close cooperation with the business.