Qualmark - The Official Mark of Quality

Adding Value to Your Business

What is Qualmark?

• Qualmark is New Zealand tourism’s official quality assurance agency.
• It is a Government backed initiative, supported by Tourism New Zealand, New Zealand Automobile Association and endorsed by other leading tourism industry organisations.
• It is used by industry to identify and direct travellers to quality assured products and services.
• Is a quality assurance licensing system that caters for all tourism businesses in New Zealand - with a star grading system for accommodation and a quality endorsement system for other tourism businesses.

Qualmark will assist you to:

• Select product that is appropriate for your customer’s needs and preferences.
• Recommend a product confidently to your customer, even if you don’t have first hand knowledge of it.
• Sell the product more easily because of customer recognition of the benefit of independent quality assurance and star grading.
• Exceed customer expectations by presenting quality assurance as an additional benefit of the itineraries you provide.
• Book or buy with confidence on behalf of your customer.
• Validate an operators’ compliance with legislative requirements.

What goes into achieving a Qualmark?

• The Qualmark assessment process is carried out by professional business experts who have experience and in-depth industry knowledge.
• The one-on-one, on-site assessment takes approximately 3 hours.
• The assessment is based on national quality tourism practices of core business excellence criteria including: customer service; standard of facilities; overall business operations; environment and cultural considerations; general safety and welfare. Specific criteria relevant to each sector are also included.
• An important part of the assessment is to check that the business has the necessary compliance documents in the legal, insurance and health & safety areas.
• The criteria are updated regularly to allow for changing industry standards and customer expectations.

How is ongoing Quality measured?

• Monitoring is ongoing through direct customer and trade feedback. Feedback cards at each Qualmark business give your customer the opportunity to provide specific comments. You can contact Qualmark directly if you would like to comment about a Qualmark licensed business.
• A mystery shopper programme provides additional quality checks and a robust complaints process is also in place. If complaints are unresolved the Qualmark licence can ultimately be withdrawn.