(20 December 2011)
The Tryall Club, a luxury resort 12 miles west of Montego Bay, has become the first in Jamaica to achieve Hospitality Assured (HA) accreditation. Management at the resort have successfully completed rigorous reviews by external assessors that measure nine key areas of business and customer service.
“Our entire team worked together to review our club’s procedures and, while we already had systems in place, HA helped us to keep better track, target with greater efficiency and fine-tune our operational procedures,” says The Tryall Club’s managing director Gerald Giarla.
The Tryall Club first opened as a private resort in 1957. Today it features 87 private villas, each one distinct in design and layout, set in 2,200 acres that were formerly the sugar cane fields of a prominent plantation. The Tryall Club is a National Heritage Foundation site. Guests enjoy the lavish surroundings of a private luxury villa, but remain footsteps from a vibrant club atmosphere, offering an abundance of world-class amenities: golf or tennis, beach or spa, water sports or tours.
The HA process encourages businesses to look at their operation from the customer’s perspective and reinforces a commitment to quality and customer satisfaction as a means to improving overall business performance.
Nearly 50 tourism businesses across the Caribbean are using the Hospitality Assured programme to strengthen their performance and overall competitiveness. The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) has been implementing HA in eight Caribbean countries (Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad & Tobago) since 2007. In a region often described as the most tourism-dependent in the world, Hospitality Assured is making a real difference.
Between 2007 and 2009 the CTO began building the foundation for Hospitality Assured in the region by partnering with the Institute of Hospitality to train business advisors and assessors in each of the pilot countries. This was followed by an implementation phase between 2010 and 2011 during which tourism businesses were encouraged to sign up for the programme. The CTO was successful in attracting funding support from PRO€INVEST, a European Union-backed investment fund operating in the region.
Currently there are 45 tourism businesses engaged in the HA programme, and the Tryall Club is one of ten that have already received accreditation. Hospitality Assured’s managing director Ann Corrigan FIH says: “The credit has to go to the Caribbean Tourism Organization for recognising the quality and benefits of the Hospitality Assured standard and implementing it across the Caribbean. Their ability to attract significant funding from PRO€INVEST has helped to kick-start the programme. We now expect to build on this success and create a financially self-sustaining initiative.”
Originally published – 20 December 2011