The future of standardised quality management in tourism: evidence from the Spanish tourist sector

Abstract

Quality management is gaining more importance in the tourist sector, in particular, by implementing standardized Quality Management Systems (QMS). A forerunner is the Spanish case, in which specific standards have been developed over the last few years for quality management in different tourist sub-sectors, such as hotels, rural accommodation, restaurants, spas and travel agencies, up to a total of seventeen standards. The current article, of an exploratory nature, sets out to analyse the diffusion of the aforementioned standards, using well-contrasted models in the specialized literature, with a double objective: on the one hand, to forecast the diffusion of the mentioned standards, and, on the other, to present this experience to the rest of the professional, scientific community, interested in improving quality in the tourist sector.