Tourism & Travel News South Africa

Robben Island experience to be enhanced by Service Excellence Legacy Committee

New members and ambassadors have been appointed to Robben Island's Service Excellence Legacy Committee to ensure an enriched service and heritage experience for visitors to the island. Speaking at the launch of Robben Island Museum's (RIM) Service Excellence Legacy Committee Minister Derek Hanekom lauded the employees' enthusiasm and efforts in adopting and embracing a culture of service excellence and reminded staff they each have a responsibility to ensure a memorable service experience for all visitors.
Robben Island experience to be enhanced by Service Excellence Legacy Committee
©Bradley van der Westhuizen via 123RF

“Robben Island received 360,000 visitors last year. They will all tell 10 others if it was a life changing experience. Everyone makes up this experience. If one slips, it destroys the entire good experience,” said Hanekom.

The Robben Island Museum chief executive officer, Mava Dada indicated that it is a priority for the Museum to provide an excellent visitor experience and that the Service Excellence Programme contributes towards meeting this goal. “The roll-out the Service Excellence Programme has come at an ideal time. The museum recently appointed a new board which identified service excellence as critical to the tourist experience,” said Dada.

During the launch, every ambassador received a Service Excellence Legacy team blazer with a token stating: “Excellence service starts with me!” Newly appointed Service Excellence ambassador Thozama Koli was adamant that they would take service to a higher level. “We will have to put papers in our shoes to make them fit us because there is a lot of challenges ahead and a lot needs to change to ensure excellent service to all.”

The Robben Island Museum is one of four identified tourism products that are participating in the Department’s Service Excellence Integrated Product Support initiative. The initiative aims to assist tourism products in developing a service excellence culture in terms of its operations and processes through the application of the Service Excellence Strategy and Standards.

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