Tourism Regulatory Authority is established under section 4 of The Tourism Act, No. 28 of 2011 and is mandated to regulate the sector to ensure that tourism is managed in a sustainable manner and Kenya as a destination achieves competitiveness through high quality tourism products and services. Classification and Grading is a mandatory exercise of which all regulated tourism facilities are expected to participate.

The National Classification exercise will be guided by the EAC Classification Standards Criteria and procedures for classification and star rating. The classification exercise is concurrently being undertaken in all EAC Partner States. All Partner States are required to conclude the implementation of classification by June 2016.

All hospitality service providers are asked to cooperate with the Authority’s Staff; EAC trained and certified assessors and the Classification and Standardization Committee who will be overseeing this important national exercise. The tourism sector stakeholders are urged to actively participate and accord the exercise necessary support. This is to ensure that the processes of ongoing pre-classification and the actual classification and grading being implemented in phases are successfully conducted throughout the country.

The EAC Classification Standards Criteria and other guidelines are available in the EAC website and Tourism Regulatory Authority’s website: www.tourismauthority.go.ke

The Association is represented by Sam Ikwaye and Leah Ng’ang’a, who are EAC trained and certified Assessors, and Mike Macharia, who is a member of the Standardization and Classification Committee.

TRA has held pre-classification training in the following regions: Nyanza, Western, North Rift, Central Rift, Upper Eastern, and Mt. Kenya.

The actual classification exercise was carried out in May 2015 in Western, Nyanza and North Rift, and the results of the exercise are expected to be released in the coming months.

We urge the members to cooperate and support the exercise.