[2008-05-20]  MRI Encourages Tourism Sector to Outsource Call Centres
Medical Rescue International Botswana displayed its products and services at the recent HATAB Open Season in Kasane. Shadi Showa of MRI’s marketing division said there is need for collaboration between
the tourism industry and companies like MRI. MRI operates call centres for various companies and Showa said it would be appropriate and business wise for the tourism big players to outsource such a service to
the likes of MRI.

She said hospitality and related call centres assure HATAB and its members fi rst hand information on the needs and wants of visitors and tourists through specialised databases.

Showa said call centres provide a ‘real time’ database of marketing information to support and progress the Botswana tourism strategy while also providing another channel (apart from print and websites)on how potential visitors and tourists can access Botswana.

According to Showa, “Guest satisfaction surveys can be conducted for more guest insight”.

She said business owners can have a peace of mind that visitors and tourists are being assisted by professional customer service representatives who are available daily, 24hrs a day. She added that call centres add value to hotel and tourism establishments, through linked websites and have the potential for communicating in other foreign languages (there were 3000 French tourist arrivals in 2004).

Showa is confi dent that call centres can enhance the Botswana Brand. Challenges that still have to be overcome in the call centre business in Botswana include educating stakeholders on the idea of a call centre as another channel for promoting and marketing the tourism sector.

According to Showa, accessing a call centre through local numbers in foreign countries is one of the hurdles they are still trying to overcome. She said there is still a challenge in recruiting agents with the ability to communicate in foreign languages like German which accounted for 9000 tourists in 2004.

She observed that packaged tours leave little room for tourists to explore the country through other channels. Showa said there are good lessons to be learnt from South Africa about the call centre business.
She said in that country there is centralization of call markets and there is access to call centres through local lines in a number of countries.

The provision of information and mailing of brochures is the norm in South Africa and the country has a good pool of agents with the ability to speak in foreign languages such as Dutch, Italian, and Mandarin.

* Centralization of call markets
* Access to call centre through local lines in a number of countries
* Provision of information and mailing of brochures
* Agents with the ability to speak in a foreign language e.g. Dutch, Italian, Mandarin.

Source: Copyright 2008 Medical Rescue International Botswana Limited