MSC Newswire Hospitality & Tourism Walk-Through otherwise Encouraging.

The MSC Newswire panel in its annual review of the hospitality and tourism related sector has again given high marks to practitioners for what is described as “efficient, and friendly service,” even under what is described as “difficult” conditions.

Evaluators in this current review which focused on the South Island had only two reservations. One of them was the signposting at Christchurch International Airport where they discovered that there were no signs for the benefit of international arrivals directing them to domestic flights or indeed other connecting flights.

Air New Zealand was particularly hard to find they noted squirreled away at the very furthest end of the concourse with no sign at all indicating the whereabouts of the national carrier. Escalator had no indication of where users were bound, they said.

Panelists noted that the directions problem was confined only to international arrivals – the very sector that required a clearly identified path to follow. In the end members of cleaning crews had put them on the right path, panellists noted.

The same problem was identified by panelists at the Picton to Wellington ferry terminal. Here, there was no distinction visible to motorists at the Picton end in order to distinguish between the two ferry operators – Tranz Rail and Bluebridge.

When this was pointed out to a Tranz Rail traffic terminal official, the official simply replied that the problem was of long standing. But that nobody was doing anything to solve it.

These two sets of directional problems, the one at Christchurch International Airport and the one at the Picton Ferry Terminal, the panel ascribed to the failure of operators to conduct walk-throughs in which people new to the terminals tested them for user-friendliness.

Otherwise the panel was impressed by establishments and the staff operating them.

This particularly applied to check-out staff at retail chains handling tourists with limited English, and also to accommodation reception staff in managing the familiarity problems.

This was credited to in-house applied training which inculcated the practice of pushing personal feelings aside, while continuing to smile at all times.As in the previous survey the chain operators in retail and accommodation were praised for their organisational structures which favoured discernible promotion paths, and above all, promotion from within.

From the MSCNewsWire reporters' desk - Monday 26 September 2016