REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTERESTS

DATE OF ISSUE: 10^TH JANUARY 2025

CUSTOMER SERVICES FOR THE TRAINING FOR FRONTLINE EMPLOYEES IN THE HOSPITALITY, TOURISM AND RELATED SECTORS

 INDIVIDUAL CONSULTANT SELECTION

Sierra Leone possesses pristine beaches and islands, mountains and rich biodiversity, interesting wildlife, friendliness and rich cultural capital among people and its special place in the world history of anti-slavery movement as ‘the land of the free.’ The Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL) has officially prioritized tourism in the Medium-Term National Development Plan 2019 -2023. The National Tourism Policy states the goal of tourism in Sierra Leone as to “generate foreign exchange, encourage even development, promote tourism-based rural enterprises, generate employment, accelerate rural-urban integration and foster socio-cultural unity among the various regions of the country through the promotion of domestic and international tourism.” (GoSL, 2017). Its National Ecotourism Policy states the goal of receiving 20,000 international and 30,000 domestic ecotourism visits to sites by 2025 (GoSL, 2017).

The World Bank is supporting an Economic Diversification Project, one of the components of which will take an integrated destination approach to improving the performance of Sierra Leone’s tourism sector. This will include facilitating the reduction of barriers to business success, assisting existing tourism providers with market access, and improving the quality of selected tourism products in order to place the country’s tourism sector on a sustainable and inclusive growth trajectory.  This will be achieved through a mix of institutional, and policy reforms, market development and national re-branding as well as building B2B linkages and strategically developing tourism products.

Over the period of 2016-2019, significant achievements were made in terms of increasing the number of domestic and international visitors to Sierra Leone. While COVID-19 initially caused a decline in visitation, there is evidence that the tourism sector is rebounding. To prepare and increase the market readiness of the tourism sector to meet the expectations of the increasing number of international and domestic visitors travelling throughout Sierra Leone, the Ministry of Tourism & Cultural Affairs (MoTCA) and National Tourist Board (NTB) have identified the need to develop and implement an Explore Freedom branded service excellence training throughout the tourism and hospitality sector.

A good service experience that builds trust with customers is the best differentiating factor for any business or destination. Travellers want to feel safe yet still have an enjoyable experience – whether they are visiting a destination for business or leisure. Service management offers many useful tools for destinations, business, and tourism professionals to think more strategically about their operations, build processes with their customers’ needs and best interests in mind, and connect with other stakeholders along the tourism value chain. If approached strategically, an Explore Freedom branded service excellence training will help participants create new service propositions and valuable experiences, while still keeping their customers safe.

1. Objectives of the Assignment

The primary objective of the training is to: improve visitor arrival experience by providing standardized customer service training in order to enhance visitor satisfaction. This will be achieved through two main activities:

1. To develop a tourism customer service training guide that can be tailored to different audiences and used on to provide hands-on training to new and established tourism-related businesses so that the trainings can be scaled up and utilised throughout Sierra Leone beyond the time horizon of the project.
2. To provide tourism customer service training to managers and employees of key organizations interfacing with the tourist at the airport and ferry terminals (e.g. immigration, securiport, Orange, Sea Coach etc.)
3. To make recommendations for how the training can be scaled up in a potential subsequent phase.

Mode of Application

The Project Fiduciary Management Unit of Ministry of Finance now invites qualified individuals to express their interest in providing the services. Note: The Consultant will be selected in accordance with Individual Consultant (IC) method set out in the Consultant Guidelines: Selection and Employment of Consultants under IDA Grants by World Bank Borrowers, (July 2016, Revised November 2017, 2018 and fourth edition 2020). The evaluation shall be based on the relevant qualification and experience of the individual Consultant. The detailed Terms of Reference can be requested for at osmantommy@sledp.info

The expression of interest should be addressed to:

The Procurement Management Specialist

Sierra Leone Economic Diversification Project

Ministry of Finance

35 Percival Street Freetown

Tel: +23278235061

or

By E-mail application as attachment

to: sleconomicdiversification@gmail.com

Closing Date:

The Closing Date and time for receipt of applications is 24^th January 2025 at 16:00pm.