Industry aligns to name Qualmark accommodation sectors

Qualmark have announced the names "motel" and "apartment" will be used to represent the two new accommodation sectors created out of the previous "self contained and services" sector.

The new names were agreed after full consultation with key industry leaders, and with a desire to maintain industry and consumer relevance within the sector.

Tim Keeling, General Manager of Qualmark says the outcome will benefit both licence holders and consumers alike.

"Along with our industry partners we felt it was important to provide specific criteria relevant to the accommodation types of today. The feedback we've had is that these new sectors and criteria will be a positive step forward for the tourism industry and we'd like to thank everyone who contributed."

In June 2011 a decision was made to split the "self-contained and serviced" sector, into two separate sectors.

This was out of a desire to ensure greater relevance to end consumers, who've struggled with the title, and to support the requests of inbound tour operators and wholesalers, asking for greater differentiation within these developing sectors.

New criteria for the Motel sector have been agreed on after comprehensive input from industry members over the past year. Apartment criteria are currently being developed with industry and will be ready by 1 April 2012.

New logos for both sectors will be available early in 2012, with Motel assessments commencing from late January. Assessments under the Apartment criteria will begin from 1st April 2012.

Qualmark is committed to working with the existing self contained and serviced licence holders to ensure a smooth transition across to the new sectors categories.

Qualmark New Zealand Limited is New Zealand tourism's official quality agency. It is a government and private sector partnership between Tourism New Zealand and New Zealand Automobile Association.