Tourism stakeholders surprised at scrapping of T-QUAL

Independent tourism organisations including the National Tourism Alliance (NTA) and the Queensland Tourism Industry Council (QTIC) have expressed “dismay” and “disappointment” over the Federal Government’s decision to scrap the national tourism quality assurance framework (T-QUAL) without notice.

Having made a Federal election pledge to transfer the T-QUAL scheme to industry, the Government’s Austrade agency is now claiming that the tender process designed to return the scheme to industry “was not able to identify an industry provider who could demonstrate a sustainable and self-funding business model for the program.”

Following the decision to scrap the scheme from 1st July, notified to industry stakeholders on 30th June, NTA issued a statement suggesting that T-QUAL had been “mismanaged by the Federal Government Tourism Division.”

The statement added “industry had been promised that responsibility would be transferred to industry to ensure ongoing improvement to tourism quality nationally.

“The Coalition policy prior to the 2013 election was to ensure the T-QUAL framework was transferred to industry. Consequently the industry proposed a model to the government to run the national framework, but this has been rejected.

“The Government’s decision is disappointing in the light of its stated commitment to encouraging high quality tourism products and services in a highly competitive international environment.

“(NTA) also highlights for the industry that, without an appointed Minister for Tourism, there remains a risk that a $100 billion national industry that employs 1 million people does not receive due attention when Government is making significant decisions that affect tourism.

“It appears that not only has the Government broken its promise, but the thousands of tourism businesses who use the T-QUAL logo were given one hour’s notice on Monday of the cancellation of the T-QUAL framework and the news that the T-QUAL logo could no longer be used.”

QTIC has echoed the NTA’s sentiments with Chief Executive Daniel Gschwind saying that the unexpected decision has undone the extensive amount of work performed by industry, T-QUAL staff and tourism operators.

Gschwind stated “QTIC is extremely disappointed by the Government’s decision to abandon the T-QUAL framework, considering previous statements expressing the Government’s commitment to support Australian tourism operators in delivering high quality tourism products and services.

“The T-QUAL framework was introduced to elevate and standardise quality to ensure the sustainability of Australia’s tourism industry.  It also provided a national symbol that offered consumers and buyers a means of making more informed choices about tourism products and services.

“Now that the T-QUAL framework has been cancelled, the T-QUAL logo can no longer be used by operators as a nationally-recognised symbol to demonstrate the quality of their products and services to consumers and buyers.”

Gschwind says QTIC remains dedicated to working with individual accreditation program providers to promote and raise quality standards in our industry.

“QTIC will continue to engage with Australia’s accreditation programs, our industry partners and the National Tourism Alliance to keep working toward continual improvement,” he said.

However, the Government’s move has been backed by the Australian Federation of Travel Agents (AFTA).

A statement by AFTA said the decision by the Government stressed the importance of the industry “taking ownership for accreditation and service delivery by the sector. With travellers now providing feedback instantly, the travel industries (sic) other accreditation programs will take centre stage”.

AFTA said the national T-QUAL scheme “complicated a crowded space and this decision to scrap the scheme will allow the many industry schemes across the travel and tourism sectors to prevail.”

NTA represents 14 industry associations with an interest in Australia’s tourism and hospitality industry. Membership comprises national and state industry associations who together represent the interests of an industry with 280,000 businesses in Australia; around 90% of these are small business, and about half are in regional areas.

Click here to read Austrade’s statement on the Cessation of the T-QUAL accreditation program.

Image courtesy of Oz Magic adventure tourism.

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