AMMAN - The Kingdom's restaurants will soon be rated under a new classification system, a Ministry of Tourism official said on Monday.
In a press conference yesterday, Tourism Ministry Spokesperson Ansam Malkawi said a committee formed by the ministry and the Jordan Restaurants Association (JRA) is finalising the new classification system to be released within the next two months.
She noted that those who wish to upgrade their classification under the new system, designed according to international standards, will have to provide additional services to do so.
The current classification system was based on factors such as restaurant size, amount of initial investment and interior décor, rather than food quality and customer service, JRA President Zaid Goussous told The Jordan Times previously.
In addition to the quality of cuisine, the new classification system will rate restaurants according to their ambiance, cleanliness and sustainability of services, he said.
Under some of the proposals being considered for the new system, inspectors will visit restaurants posing as patrons to gauge food and service quality.
Another proposed change would give the ministry the authority to revoke licences if an establishment abuses its ranking, in a bid to ensure that restaurant owners maintain service and health standards after the classification.
At the ministry's monthly press meeting yesterday, Malkawi noted that six hotels have been classified in accordance with the new service-based classification system.
"The system is not mandatory now, but it will be by the beginning of 2011," she said, adding that 10 additional hotels have applied to be classified under the new system, which was accredited earlier this year.
Under the new standards, developed by the Ministry of Tourism, the USAID-Jordan Tourism Development Project and the Jordan Hotels Association, all basic and additional hotel amenities will be graded, ranging from electronic-locking mechanisms to the presence of safes in every room.
Each hotel will be given a three-month period to rectify its status, and by 2011, all hotels will be reclassified in line with the new standards, according to the ministry.
By Khetam Malkawi
© Jordan Times 2010
