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The Q for tourism model

The Spanish Tourist Quality institute was set up in the year 2000, as the result of the merger of the former institutes created by each sector for promoting quality assurance systems in tourist companies within their scope.

With the objective of dealing with the demands of the business sector in its need for quality distinction, the Government Tourist Authority decided to create the Spanish Tourist Quality standard, incorporating this concept into the measures taken in its successive strategic programmes.

Based on the above, since 1996, and resulting from the support given by the Government Tourist Authority, a macro-project was developed, known as the SPANISH TOURIST QUALITY SYSTEM (STQS).

Setting up this project has led to the unanimous agreement of all the sub-sectors forming the Spanish tourist sector regarding the need to develop management models that will permit the services offered to be adapted to meet the expectations of demand, and in turn guarantee the established service level.

The Spanish Tourist Quality System (STQS) is aimed at providing companies in the tourist sector in Spain and any other country in which facilities exist, with a methodological tool to enable them to maintain and improve their competitive position. It basically entails the development of a common method for all tourist sub-sectors involved in improving the quality of their products and services and offers institutional support in implementing the Spanish Tourist Quality Mark.

The main objective of the system is therefore to provide companies in the Spanish tourist sector with a management and quality improvements system for their products and services that will enable them to gain a competitive advantage that is in keeping with the new challenges posed by the market.

TOURIST SECTOR

The most visible element of the whole system is the mark, whose generic name for the whole Sector is Spanish Tourist Quality, which is given to all tourist products that comply with a series of quality standards that are required and expressed in the Services Quality Standards, and which ensure that work is being carried out to guarantee the on-going improvement of such services in order to fulfil the expectations of their clients at all times.

The basic document of the Q for Tourist Quality Mark certification is, in the case of hotels, UNE 182001 Standard Tourist hotels and apartments.

Requirements for providing the service". This is the basic standard for the certification and contains all the requirements for both management and for providing the service and tangible elements that any hotel establishment must have in order to obtain the Q Mark for tourist hotels and apartments.

The standard establishes the requirements to be met by establishments offering accommodation, defined in terms of services provided, processes used in providing the services and facilities, furniture and fittings.

AENOR has recently signed a collaboration agreement with the Spanish Tourist Quality Institute for exercising the activities of certification, monitoring and renewal required for obtaining the Tourist Quality Q Mark for the following sub-sectors:

Tourist hotels and lodgings
Travel agencies
Spas
Restaurants
Beaches
Transpor of tourists by road

As well as these sectors, the Tourist Quality Q Mark can be found in other tourist services such as tourist coaches, camping sites, rural lodgings, convention bureaux, protected nature reserves, ski resorts, tourist information offices, congress halls and time sharing.

As a result of the collaboration agreement referred to above, AENOR is now recognised as a member of the certification Committee for awarding the right to hold the Q for Tourist Quality Mark. This committee executes all actions that are necessary to verify compliance of the standard requirements by all interested organisations, and the subsequent certification of those organisations.

Through this agreement, AENOR contributes all its proven experience in the field of certifying products and services to the tourist sector, making it possible for tourist establishments that are already certified by AENOR based on ISO 9001 or ISO 14001 standard to have a common interlocutor for their certification audits activities.

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