What is Qualmark?
Qualmark makes it easy to find the best tourism offerings in New Zealand. More than 2,000 Qualmark-awarded visitor accommodation, activities, service and transport providers across the country have been assessed against a stringent framework by our team of independent Qualmark specialists. Vineyards, cellar doors and wineries are a relatively recent – and growing – sector of our membership. New Zealand is home to more than 240 cellar doors with in excess of 530 winery experiences. Wineries are a quintessential New Zealand tourism experience, combining the beautiful scenery of the vineyards, fabulous local wine and food, and the manaakitanga or welcoming hospitality of the hosts. These businesses have the potential to help the landscape, staff and local community to thrive. In joining Qualmark, we encourage these operators to make their wine tourism experiences the best in the business.
How has Qualmark evolved to meet changing tourism demands?
Over the past 30 years our quality assurance focus has adapted to meet the changing needs of visitors, expanding to cover factors from cleanliness and health and safety to sustainability. Our Sustainable Tourism Business criteria were introduced in 2016. These criteria have gained GSTC-Recognised Status from the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, meaning members can be confident that achieving Qualmark certification meets global standards of sustainability. And that’s not just sustainability in terms of how ‘green’ a vineyard is. The Sustainable Tourism Business criteria assesses a business across five key pillars: business systems, environment, people, community and culture, and health and safety.
How could Qualmark help wine tourism businesses?
Compared to 10 years ago travellers are now three times more likely to choose a business that has been sustainably accredited. Qualmark certification recognises excellence in the visitor experience at the vineyard, from the appeal of the cellar door to strong customer safety, to the quality of hosting – and that goes for very large globally-renowned vineyard names to the smallest boutique cellar door operations. But beyond that, Qualmark members say that the process has helped them focus on becoming as sustainable as possible in terms of benefiting New Zealand’s economy, nature, society and culture. Our criteria reviews aspects of each Qualmark member’s business, from waste reduction through to team culture and social licence, staff training to integration of culture.
What's involved in becoming certified?
Our team of Qualmark specialists independently visits and assesses each Qualmark member across our five pillars, designating Bronze, Silver or Gold accreditation. Importantly, the process is ongoing; the Qualmark team works with businesses so they can continually improve in each area and offer the best possible experience. There’s real value in not only being seen to be good, but seen to be doing good. Qualmark is the signifier of tourism experiences doing just that.
Altogether Unique
A new Qualmark New Zealand Wine Tourism Award will be awarded at the New Zealand Wine, Altogether Unique 2024 Celebration Dinner in August. The award recognises excellence in visitor experiences, from the cellar door to the quality of the hosting, with an emphasis on sustainable tourism experiences.
