Lady at the helm of hotel industry

Her phones buzz every now and then. It is expected when you are Executive Director (ED) of the Uganda Hotel Owners Association (UHOA). Jean Byamugisha became ED three months ago. At 33, she is the youngest person to occupy the office.

However, she had previously served at Uhoa as executive secretary and as supervisor of membership services before she left to consult with United Nations (UN) as a hotel expert, for about two years. With UN, they were carrying out studies in the hotel sector.

She confesses that as a child, she always wanted a career that involved tourism. At Makerere University, she opted for a degree in tourism. As ED of Uhoa, Byamugisha’s role is to take care of the interests of the hotels and hoteliers in Uganda.
“I am supposed to liaise with the other sectors like the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB), tour operators and government through Ministry of tourism.
Those are our partners so my duty is to bridge them with us. I am also in charge of the welfare of staff at hotels. I mediate in case there is a problem with the staff in the hotel and the management,” she explains.

She also works with development partners who may be interested in capacity building programmes for the hotels and those who have some funding that they want to channel throughout the hotels, so it is also her duty to work with development partners to see how best hotels can be assisted.

Byamugisha’s role extends to speaking on behalf of the hotels in the country. She observes that the hotel sector of Uganda is still young but growing very fast. She adds though, that the quality of the hotels, especially up country, still needs improvement.

“There are many opportunities of business and investment in the hotel sector and we would really like to have the international brands like Hilton come and invest here.

Local investors have done a very good job in improving the quality of hotels outside of Kampala. Hotels in the National Parks and Ssese islands are privately owned,” Byamugisha further observes.

In terms of employment, youth are the most employed, up to about 80 per cent. 57 per cent of these are female. “And you know that when you empower a woman, you empower a community and you empower a nation. The value of empowering a woman is very big, so that is one of the advantages we have,” she notes.

The hotel sector provides market for agricultural products. Hotels upcountry buy produce from farmers, which is a source of employment for the communities while hotels in Kampala buy from markets, again supporting farmers since much of the produce is ferried from the countryside.

Challenges
Byamugisha says the missing link and challenge is standardising the hotels and acquisition of skills. Uhoa carried out a skills audit in the hotel sector where training institutes were vetted.

“Some training institutes that are still using charcoal and fire- wood to cook, and this is what students are trained on.

They are given certificates and then they come to a hotel that is using digital cookers and micro waves and they don’t know what to do, so you find that there is still a very big gap between the academia and the employers,” she observes.

She adds that the hospitality industry is dynamic and staff need to be trained regularly. Another issue Byamugisha points out is the need to grade hotels in Uganda.

Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) graded about 70 hotels in Kampala last year, and is yet to release results. Plus, the hotel sector does not have enough marketing because UTB’s budget is low.

But hotels need to work on a number of aspects for the marketing to be effective. Uhoa’s ED explains that a good hotel is one that provides an all-round service, from customer care to the quality of the food and luxurious facilities like swimming pools.

She points out that Uganda’s customer care leaves a lot to desire and adds that they have lobbied training institutes like The Crested Crane Hotel and Tourism Training Institute in Jinja to up their efforts in inculcating such values and services.

“The school has got funding of $12m from World Bank through the government, which they will be able to use to upgrade their systems so that they can be able to offer us students who can be employed and be able to address some of the issues we have,” she discloses. Byamugisha is the eldest of five children.

Quick tips
On being a good leader: “Humility and hard work. You must trust and respect the people you work with. Everyone you meet at the work place is important and should be treated as such,” she says.

Life principle: “Always dream big and believe in your dreams. There are many people out there waiting for an opportunity to put limits on you. Always listen to your inner voice and chase your dreams. Have unwavering faith and belief in yourself and God and the rest will always fall in line.”

On marriage: “I am not yet married but seeing someone. I am in a committed relationship.”