The Disney Institute, together with the top players in the South African Tourism Industry: National Department of Tourism, Fedhasa and the Tourism Business Council of South Africa, has announced the start of a free training programme for those South Africans who will be dealing with visitors over the period of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Starting yesterday, staff of accommodation establishments, tour operators, DMCs and other hospitality entities can now register for a two-hour course in service excellence.

The programme aims to register 250 000 front-line staff during its run as well as 200 training providers. These seminars are conducted the Disney Institute and only require pre-registration by visiting www.tsei.co.za.

The training, which will be delivered across nine provinces over the next 34 days, will focus on Disney best practices as they relate to quality service, leadership and people management. The programmes for front-line workers will focus primarily on delivering great service; a series of train-the-trainer sessions will also include the leadership and people management content.

"The main objective is to develop a locally relevant programme that will help workers deliver memorable and unforgettable service to all who visit our country," says Brett Dungan, Fedhasa CEO. “Our country has a clear vision of where we want to be with customer service. Disney understands better than almost any organisation how to keep employees engaged and invested in service excellence. I’m confident they’ll help us achieve our goals.”

Courtesy: Tourism Update