Egypt's Minister of Tourism Rania Al-Mashat discussed with World Tourism Organization expert Alain Feutré the recent steps made to upgrade the country's hotel rating system that has not been revised in over a decade. The move comes as part of the ministry's efforts to restructure the country's vital tourism industry with a view of drawing more visitors to help the sector recover from years of political instability, the tourism ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. Under the new system, the ministry's inspectors will use special software to assess compliance with the rating system using tablets, according to Feutré, who has been tasked by the ministry to upgrade the system. A special training program has been conducted for a number of the ministry's inspectors. Mashat said the new system, which will also apply to camps, floating hotels and environmental hotels, is intended to “improve the quality of tourist services and place Egypt in competition with top tourist destinations.” The new system will, for the first time, adopt a new criterion measuring the quality of service offered by hotels and will introduce the ‘Mystery Guest' system, whereby an undercover inspector will act like a guest, the statement added. Hotels will be given the time to comply with the new standards that are aimed to bring them in line with global hotels. The details of the new rating system is expected to be announced next month, according to the statement. Source: Ahram Online
