Tourism as Emerging Industry in Rwanda: The Role of Training and Development for the Hotel Sector

Abstract

International tourism is becoming an increasingly important industry in Rwanda, and tourists expect to meet qualified service staff. This chapter reports about the results of a study of the status of training and development activities in selected hotels in Kigali. The reported quantitative study measures the level of employees' performance and establishes the relationship between staff development activities and their level of performance in the hotels included in this study. The results show a high commitment of managers to staff development activities. Managers find the performance of employees satisfying. Overall, our study finds a significant relationship between training and development activities among the employees and their level of performance in the hospitality industry in Kigali. In discussing these results, this chapter recommends not only to intensify and diversify the types of training offered to employees, but also that employees should be given the opportunity to participate in training needs analyses.