Welcome

If you are thinking about joining Qualmark – the official mark of quality for tourism businesses in New Zealand – this is the place for you.

This section of the website should give you lots of information on reasons to join and what the benefits are, and what the licensing process is. To help you find out what category your business fits into, use the descriptions below:

Once you have joined Qualmark, you will get access to the licensee section – where you will find lots of help on getting prepared for your first assessment, be able to access criteria for your category, templates etc. Qualmark will give you a login and password for these (you can change your password).

In the meantime, use the ‘Steps to becoming a Qualmark licensee’ section, which includes information on the Qualmark system, application forms, fees and how to prepare for your assessment.

For help along the way, you can email enquiries@qualmark.co.nz or phone 0800 QUALMARK (0800 782 562).

Why Join Qualmark - an introduction

If you have aspirations for your tourism business, the Qualmark can help you achieve them. The contents of this section of the website are designed to show you how.

We recognise that there are many different paths to success. Many different markets to target and opportunities to realise. Many different ways to enhance the value of your business and improve the bottom line. Many different types of tourism business.

The quality mark is part of our national tourism strategy to make it easy for visitors to find and enjoy world-class experiences in New Zealand. That's the motivation for over 2,100 tourism businesses that are part of the Qualmark quality assurance system.

The Qualmark quality mark, and the systems that sit in behind it, are designed to support your aspirations no matter what they are, by helping you enhance the quality of what you offer, bolster your market position and profile, and attract more profitable customers.

For more information about Qualmark, view the ‘About’ menu in the toolbar above.

Benefits of joining Qualmark

For businesses with aspirations, Qualmark offers a broad range of benefits based around the use of tourism's official quality mark. Gaining the right to use the Qualmark logo gives your business credibility and visibility.
A great example is the top billing given to Qualmark licensees on the official destination New Zealand web site, www.newzealand.com, which receives more than 100,000 visits a month.

That's a major benefit if you target international visitors. And it's a major opportunity to get more international business if your main focus is currently domestic.

It's an investment in your business

Becoming Qualmark licensed is an investment that can improve your business returns. Our goal is to help you:

Attract more customers, or more discerning customers
Make best use of your resources (staff, capital and maintenance expenditure)
Increase repeat business by exceeding expectations
Boost the effectiveness of your advertising spend

Many businesses have already benefited in these ways from participation in the Qualmark licensing system, contributing to better returns in terms of profit, revenue, and growth in the value of their business.

Credibility

The use of tourism's official quality mark and star grades identifies operators as a professional and trustworthy business. It gives you leverage and credibility with quality-conscious travellers, travel agents, visitor information centres and inbound tour operators, enabling them to book and buy with confidence. It differentiates you from your competitors that haven't been independently assessed and aren't part of the Qualmark licensing system.

Visibility

The Qualmark programme offers valuable promotional opportunities in places where it really counts, like New Zealand's official visitor website, www.newzealand.com (where you will get priority listing), along with Qualmark's website section targeted at travellers. Qualmark has relationships with consumer travel publications (such AA Travel Guides, Jasons guidebooks etc.) and websites like www.wotif.co.nz. Widespread traveller recognition of the Qualmark star grades and Endorsed logos in guidebook listings, signage and other promotional activity make you stand out from the crowd.

Apart from travellers, who else recognises Qualmark?

Qualmark is jointly owned by Tourism New Zealand and the New Zealand Automobile Association (AA). A range of tourism bodies, related agencies, websites and publishers recognise Qualmark status. Some make Qualmark a requirement in their entry/participation criteria, while others give Qualmark operators priority status. Third parties, awards and events that recognise Qualmark status include:

Booking websites that provide Qualmark star grading and endorsement information like www.aatravel.co.nz, www.wotif.com, www.expedia.co.nz etc.
Database providers for G.P.S. navigation systems
Tourism New Zealand off shore trade events (Qualmark is a requirement to participate in these)
Tourism Industry Association (TIA) awards programme
International travel trade Qualmark-only itineraries as requested (for example, Qualmark is a JTB requirement from 2009)
ITOC – full members are to use 75% of Qualmark only suppliers from 2009 (requested by Inbound New Zealand)
Department of Conservation ‘limited supply concessions’ – all concessions to be Qualmark licence holders from 2010
The New Zealand Automobile Association guidebooks (including a Qualmark-only version)
Range of other New Zealand visitor guidebooks – such as Jasons
Regional Tourism Organisations, i-SITE visitor information network and the Tourism New Zealand international media team.