new zealand faces quality question

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.



COMMENT
by jason brown, 100% PNZC editor



Question: Way past time to review Qualmark?

One in four polled on TIB, the Tourism Industry Blog, do not support the official quality mark of New Zealand, Qualmark.

Qualmark does not even feature a complaints mechanism, and buries its code of ethics in a PDF that can only be found by specific search.

TIANZ has a code of ethics, and links to it, but does not provide any mechanism for "prompt handling of complaints" either. A "mood of the traveler" survey is anything but, focusing mostly on tourist spending habits, rather than their mood after travel.

However, perhaps indicative of mood is the fact that only three (3) destinations command more than a simple majority of confidence, as being places they would recommend to overseas visitors.

This represents a bare 11% majority satisfaction rate with the top 26 destination places for tourists.

Unlike TIANZ and MANZ, Qualmark does not have a social networking presence, offering a catchall feedback link that does not provide public accountability.

My interest in this topic comes after similar experiences as a quarter century career journalist in the Cook Islands, heavily dominated by New Zealand expatriates. Both they and the heavily kiwi influenced government spent years resisting calls for quality assurance surveys.

More recently, a friend from New Caledonia, non-European, had $1,000 charged to her card after departure from a Rotorua motel, allegedly for costs involved in cleaning services after a "bed bug infestation".

The motel in question, Cleveland Motel, is both a MANZ and Qualmark member but has refused to supply invoices or receipts to support their claim, and, after initially reversing their decision, still has not refunded the money.

Just to round out this dismal picture, MANZ does have a code of ethics linked from its front page, but has refused to accept a complaint under the code.

Some two dozen complaints about the motel are logged with Trip Advisor, but MANZ refuses to accept this or any other reason to take an official, formal complaint about one of their members, also refusing all further comment.

Answer to the opening question: Yes.

. . .