UAE hotels, restaurants to be rated on digital facilities

Hotels, restaurants and shopping centres in the UAE will soon be rated for their information and communications technology (ICT) facilities, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) revealed on Wednesday.

The rating will be carried out by the TRA under a new initiative named Tasneef.

The initiative aims to provide visitors with sufficient information regarding the quality of ICT services in tourist places, the TRA said in a statement.

The TRA has identified the criteria and technical standards to assess hospitality firms according to their level of services, the response rate of the technical support team, accessibility, affordability, availability and quality of innovative ICT services.

The assessment will use multiple methods such as deploying secret shoppers who would pose as customers.

The TRA will also arrange meetings with ICT experts of hotels to understand their plans and challenges, the TRA said.

Surveys will also be conducted to evaluate customers’ satisfaction related to digital services.

The evaluation is based on meeting a set of standards and will include all tourist facilities, based on their classification.

The TRA will display the evaluation results on the customer websites of leading tourist firms, the statement added.

Tasneef will “encourage competition” among tourist facilities in providing high quality digital smart services, the TRA said.

It also aims to push digital innovation and smart services in the tourism sector ahead of Expo 2020 and ensure that sights and attractions across the country are technologically-equipped in their service offerings.

Hamad Obaid Al Mansoori, TRA director general, said: “Advancing the tourism sector’s capability to provide services using smart technologies will help boost the UAE’s transition to mGovernment.

“It will help the TRA’s goal to bring a step closer the country’s vision of an electronic lifestyle, following the UAE Vision 2021.

“The initiative also seeks to rate the quality of services in the tourism and hospitality sector and recognise the best service providers in the country to enable customers have the highest level of ‘digital hosting’ experience and allow them to decide and choose accordingly the most suitable places to stay in the UAE,” he added.

The UAE is looking to boost its tourism market with Dubai alone aiming to attract 20 million visitors per year by 2020. During the six month long Expo, the emirate is further anticipated to welcome 25 million visitors.