Who is Qualmark?

Qualmark New Zealand Limited is New Zealand tourism's official quality agency. It is a government and private sector partnership between Tourism New Zealand and New Zealand Automobile Association. Qualmark licenses professional and trustworthy New Zealand tourism businesses to use the Qualmark 'tourism's official quality mark' to help international and domestic travellers select places to stay, things to do and ways to get around.

Qualmark was established in 1993 and is backed by leading tourism industry associations. At Qualmark, we have a fully integrated system for assessing all accommodation, transport, activities and services to ensure that they deliver world-class visitor experiences.

It's a role defined for Qualmark in the New Zealand tourism strategy to help achieve the industry's overall goal to enhance New Zealand's reputation as a world class visitor destination. Qualmark is run on a not-for-profit basis as a service to travellers and the tourism industry. Use the search tool on the left to search for quality assured tourism businesses or use the map to search by region.

 Approach to Quality Assurance

 QUALMARK OFFERS TWO SYSTEMS:

1) STAR GRADING (1 TO 5 STARS) FOR ACCOMMODATION

• Assesses facilities, business practices and service systems relating to guest care.
• Includes environmental and social actions from 2008.
• Three to six hour onsite visits (by appointment).
• Assessments are conducted annually by a professional assessor.

General accommodation categories:	Specialist categories:
Hotels Self contained & serviced Holiday parks Backpackers Guest & hosted	Exclusive Holiday homes Student accommodation Venues

2) ENDORSEMENT (PASS/FAIL) FOR ALL ACTIVITIES/TRANSPORT AND SERVICES

• Measures facilities, business practices including health and safety systems relevant to each type of business and service systems.
• Environmental and social actions included in 2003 and expanded from 2008.
• Three to six hour onsite visits (by appointment).

Assessments are conducted annually by a professional assessor.

Generic criteria are based on a business excellence model.

Secondary criteria for adventure tourism and transport including:

• Coaches
• Ferries
• Airlines
• Rental vehicles
• Campervans

Tertiary criteria specifically developed for a range of activities including:

Adventure biking Alpine guiding All terrain vehicles Bungy jumping Caving Diving Guiding Gondola Horse trekking Hunting and fishing Jet boating

Museums Off-road vehicles Parachuting Rafting River kayaking Sea kayaking Ski fields Tourist flights Tour operators Trekking Wildlife encounters

In addition specialist criteria have also been developed for:

Inbound Tour Operators as membership requirement for New Zealand inbound (Inbound Tour Operators Council).

Champion Golf courses as membership requirement for Best of New Zealand Golf Visitor information centres as membership for i-SITE visitor information network in New Zealand.

What makes Qualmark different from other systems?

• Integrated approach - accommodation / transport /activities / service
• Assessment includes environmental verification for sustainable tourism
• Measures front and back of house practices
• Focus on small business needs and capabilities
• Provides improvement advice for businesses
• Strong information technology focus with a customised CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system.

 Growth of licence holders

Coverage - Qualmark licence holders account for over 75% of economic activity in tourism in New Zealand