Enterprise Estonia Estonian Tourist Board Kerli Hallikmäe 6. Sept. 2005

Destination quality DESTINATION MANAGEMENT INFRASTRUCTURE CULTURE, TRADITIONS, ENVIROMENT SERVICE, ATTITUDES, KNOWLEDGE H. Müller “Qualitätorientiertes tourismus management” 2000 TOURISTS

Why Estonian Tourism Quality Programme was established?  National tourism development plan prioritises quality management in Estonian tourism sector  International trends in tourism  Estonian tourism businesses lack of: market awareness customer orientation cooperation business skills

General principles in designing the programme  Definition of quality – in case of proper management, each tourism enterprise that has selected the right target group, succeeds in meeting and exceeding customer expectations with its service, i.e. offering quality.  The Estonian Tourism Quality Programme (ETQP) is based on the philosophy of total quality management (TQM) and organizational excellence (the European Quality Award).

General principles in designing the programme  The model of the ETQP is tourism and service- specific, in comparison with European Quality Award, it is simple and suitable mainly for SMEs.  The emphasis of the model of the ETQP is on the customer-centred development.  ETQP is a tool for businesses, which gives practical help for starting with the quality management system.

Goals of ETQP  To increase tourist satisfaction with Estonian tourism product and service  To raise the awareness of the businesses on importance of continuous improvement of the management, products, services.  To help businesses to be more customer orientated and therefore more compatible in the market

How?- The model of ETQP Recognition Self assessment Selection of improvement areas Joining the programme Developing customer orientated approach Customer feedback system Customer journey 12 months Benchmarking seminar External assessment Feedback report to the business

Self assessment model 1.Leadership 2.People 3.Resources 4.Processes supporting customer journey 5.Results

Customer journey

Tools of the quality programme:  self-assessment questionnaire together with the instruction,  sample questionnaire for getting customer feedback,  scheme for analyzing the customer journey,  forms of the quality plan and final report. Seminars and trainings are provided in using the tools during the programme.

Why the businesses should participate in the programme? A possibility to raise the competitiveness and long term sustainability of the company Differentiation and public attention (in case of recognition) Contacts and benchmarking with others External assessment and feedback Assistance in company development (in trainings and seminars)

Some conclusions from the pilot phase of the programme  13 businesses from 2 counties of Estonia  10 advisers were trained to help businesses during the 12 months.  External assessment was done by 15 assessors, who assessed the businesses in pairs.  Decisions were done by the commission: 3 businesses got the recognition for 2 years 6 businesses got the recognition for 1 year

Comments from the pilot project businesses  “Participating in ETQP helped us to form a stronger team inside the organisation. Now every person in the business knows why we exist and where we want to go.”  “Customer journey analysis is a simple tool, which made us to think like our customer and brought up things about which we have never thought about.”  “Self assessment was so difficult and took so much time, that I got an inflammation of the sciatic nerve.”  “External assessment was very useful, its very helpful when a person outside of the business looks at Your company and gives some hints, what to do better.

Principles of recognition A business has to be committed to the quality development and customer-centred approach. They are evidenced by:  the system of getting and analyzing customer feedback is integrated into the organization's operations  the average evaluation score of the self-assessment criterion "The supporting processes of the customer journey" has to be at least “2” (i.e. there is clear evidence that the planned approaches have been implemented);  the average evaluation score of the self-assessment criterion "Customer-related results" has to be at least “2” (i.e. there is clear evidence that the planned approaches have enabled the organization to achieve the results);  the implementation of the selected improvement area

Recognition Märk kindlast arengust

Recognition People Committed to Quality