Solo, C Java (ANTARA) - The Association of Indonesian Hotels and Restaurants (PHRI) is looking to improve the quality of human resources to optimize the tourism sector in the city of Solo, Central Java, and surrounding areas.
"One of the measures is by improving the quality of hospitality services," said Surakarta PHRI Chairman Abdullah Suwarno between training activity in Solo, Central Java Wednesday.
The training event included a module on how to behave in front of guests, he said. A good attitude makes a good impression on tourists, especially those who have come from out of town and wanted to vacation in Solo, he believed.
"For that reason, we target front desk officers and security personnel for this training. At the moment, the services in our hotels are quite good but there is always room for improvement, especially considering Solo is a tourism destination," he said.
The PHRI involved Bank Mandiri in the training activities as they saw the banking services to be one of the best, and planned to hold such training modules twice a year, as it is important to boost visit rates, he added.
Additionally, hospitality has become an important element in the world of tourism especially in welcoming customers, Chairman of the Surakarta PHRI HR and Training Division Budi Purnomo said.
"In some aspects of training, we always emphasize three main characteristics, which are smiles, greetings, and welcoming (3S). Hopefully, guests will respond well to this kind of attitude," he said.
The number of tourists visiting Solo has continued to increase with the efforts made by various parties to achieve a higher number of visits, the Surakarta City Tourism Office stated earlier.
In 2015 the number of tourists, both domestic and foreign, coming to Solo reached 4,142,785, Head of Marketing Division of Surakarta City Tourism Office Wahyu Kristina said that. In 2016, the number had increased to 4,395,550.
In 2017 the number increased to 4,503,245 and in 2018 there were 4,695,820 tourists.
"This year, from the beginning of the year to September 2019 the number of tourists has reached 3,665,811," Kristina said.
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