‘Mystery shoppers’ hired to help improve local tourism industry

The Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) recently hired several ‘mystery shoppers’ who will be visiting restaurants, resorts and hotels to see if these establishments are up to par.

A ‘mystery shopper’ is exactly what the name suggests – someone who will blend in just like a regular customer or tourist. The shopper will be observing practices and standards of various establishments and will subsequently provide a report to the GTA about their experience.

The shopper will utilise transportation services in the tourism industry and will also tour the various tourist spots in the country.

“Basically, this initiative is to primarily have an understanding of the service quality in Guyana and the delivery among the facilities and other factors, but primarily we want to ensure that customer service particularly at restaurants are on par with what is expected,” GTA’s Director Kamrul Baksh told the News Room during a recent interview.

Baksh explained that the GTA has been providing training in service delivery and “we want to ensure that the training is very impactful so we have launched this mystery shopping exercise.”

Importantly, establishments found to be in breach of the required standards will not face consequences but will be asked to rectify the issues.

“The end game really is that the mystery shoppers will be generating reports and we will be sharing with the general managers of these facilities with the view, of course, of improving performance overall,” Baksh revealed.

Meanwhile, the GTA director is encouraging restaurants to get on board with the local restaurant code of practice which was established in collaboration with the Guyana National Bureau of Standard (GNBS).

“I want to really urge restaurant to get on board with this standard, we are competing against global businesses and we need to ensure that we have the best standards in place to compete with the best,” Baksh stated.

He explained that the GTA is ready to offer training on how restaurants can satisfy the requirements of GNBS. Baksh said once the training is complete, the business will receive an ISO certification.

And he explained that this will improve the reputation and efficiency of the business.