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The Addis Abeba Millennium Secretariat, in
collaboration with the Addis Abeba Tourism
Commission, is to hold a millennial star of
hospitality award competition among service
providers of the city. Grouped in six categories,
hotels and restaurants, airliners, tour operators,
travel agents and training institutions in Addis
Abeba will be evaluated in the competition.
In a bid to initiate service providers in the city
to render better services for residents as well as
tourists, the Secretariat has secured about 150,000
Br from the Addis Abeba Tourism Commission, as well
as from NGOs, Kiros Haileselassie, chairman of the
Secretariat, told Fortune.
Gizachew Abegaz, quality and control acting head at
the Addis Abeba Tourism Commission, said that this
sum would be used for selecting the service
providers and awarding the prize, which the
Commission is facilitating.
"Since the process with which the services are
evaluated is the first effort of its kind, the
amount of money involved for prize is not as high as
it should be, Gizachew told Fortune, hoping this
would represent the beginning of a running event.
The metropolis has under 5,000 bedrooms in its
various hotels that are up to the required standards
where it should have had 10,000, according to a
study by the Ministry of Works and Urban Development
(MoWUD). Though there are around 200 hotels in the
city, those that meet the standard are below 100.
The competition began on September 30, 2007, and
remains through the evaluation process until
February 25, 2008, which will be judged by a newly
formed steering committee. Two task forces, the
first the event organiser and the second setting the
standards.
The steering committee is composed of both local and
international experts from countries including
Egypt, South Africa as well as some from the United
Nations (UN).
"While some members are not satisfied with the level
of transparency to determine the best service
providers, the steering committee would try its
level best to avoid serious mistakes in the process
of recommending," one member of the steering
committee told Fortune.
Although, the contest mainly targets hotels,
airlines, tour operators, restaurants, travel agents
as well as training institutions (hotel management,
tour operation, food preparation and tour guides)
make a showing.
"Though the amount of money for the award is not
much, the main focus is on stimulating and creating
awareness in the hospitality industry," Kiros told
Fortune of the plans to develop the Ethiopian
services, the second largest sector in the world
after fuel. "By the same token, we hope to build the
culture of quality oriented services in the sector."
The city Millennium Secretariat office spent 16
million Br for the Millennium celebrations in the
last 10 months and five million Birr on New Year's
Eve. The tree planting campaign alone cost the
office three million Birr, electronic advertising
sliced 1.5 million Br while billboards, books and
employee salaries shared the balance.
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