Wilderness Motorhomes has received a Gold Sustainable Tourism Business Award and a Qualmark Endorsement under the new guidelines established by Qualmark—New Zealand tourism’s official quality assurance organisation—last October.
The sister company to SmartRV runs a fleet of premium European rental motorhomes, operating out of the same premises as SmartRV in Auckland and Christchurch.
The changes came about after Tourism New Zealand took full ownership of the Qualmark brand, establishing a ‘more rounded’ view of what quality means, and extending the Enviro awards programme to include more frequent contact with businesses. All assessments will now include aspects of environmental performance.
“There will be a greater emphasis on customer service and customer satisfaction,” Peter Clinton-Baker, Qualmark tourism business advisor, says. “What the customer is actually saying about the experience or product will be included in the assessment.”
With new legislation in place, health and safety also play a more important part in the new criteria. Peter says that in applying the new criteria, assessors are looking for good processes that result in good products that lead to good visitor experiences.
Congratulating the Wilderness team on their win, Peter acknowledged that the company had continually scored highly in previous evaluations.
“We are very proud to receive these endorsements,” Mary Hamilton, marketing director of Wilderness Motorhomes and SmartRV, says.
“We understand that only 10 percent of businesses have achieved this status under the new rating system. It’s an illustration of our commitment to the environment and our focus on continually surprising and delighting our guests with outstanding customer service.”
Wilderness Motorhomes and SmartRV have a number of environmental initiatives in place, including a company commitment to be paperless in the near future, an environmental committee, community programmes and team tree planting days, an LED light replacement programme for its Auckland and Christchurch bases, and a recycling programme for tyres and engine oil.
