April 19, 2023 – Croatia received the first franchise directly related to the tourism sector – the consulting company for the development of quality in tourism Feel IQM d.o.o. with the IQM Destination project, has developed a tourist destination management franchise that is already attracting significant interest from many tourist countries, including Brazil and Saudi Arabia.
As Poslovni writes, the franchise was developed in cooperation with the Čolak Franchise Consulting Group, from which they say that this project will not only set new standards in tourism but also contribute to the promotion of Croatia as a tourist destination.
The IQM Destination project was started four years ago by Đurđica Šimičić with her rich experience in the Tourist Board of the town of Mali Lošinj, and her team was joined by private accommodation consultant Anamarija Cicarelli and hotel sector consultant Pero Matić, and together with a team of external experts, they provide services of integrated destination quality management.
In short, their task is to connect all stakeholders in the destinations and focus them, come up with a plan to develop the destination, and enable things not to remain only in documents but to implement all those strategies and master plans. This task, it turned out, is often the weakest link in developing destinations.
Overcoming obstacles
“Each of the stakeholders in tourism has their own goals and tasks, but they are often not connected with destination positioning and more decisive joint action, encouragement of excellence and connection is needed. Although this is often expected from tourist boards, they have neither the budgets nor the resources to implement such a thing, which I experienced myself in the TZ of Mali Lošinj, where we tried to implement significant projects, but in our activities, we encountered just such limitations.
We provide destinations with very effective tools for measuring and managing the destination, as well as monitoring and introducing concrete measures with which they will design and implement their ideas”, says Đurđica Šimičić, who we found at the project in the town of Jastrebarsko. It is just one of several destinations that have recognized IQM Destination as a partner for developing tourism.
They work on the continent and at sea; their list of references includes Split, Šibenik, Rovinj, Lošinj, Vodice, Karlovac, Pelješac, Novalja, Vukovar, Rab, Bjelovar-Bilogora County and several other Croatian destinations, which will remain the focus of the team in Croatia, while destinations abroad will be taken care of by their franchisors.
And they will get everything – from education to support at every step. Although each destination is dealt with individually according to the needs, circumstances, and products to be developed, the franchise could be set up thanks to the carefully designed system of tools and measurements used by IQM Destination and according to the recommendations of the World Tourism Federation.
Concrete measures
The goals of the project are to increase the quality of service; education adapted to the needs of tourism workers and all entities, positioning and branding of the destination, and responsible and sustainable tourism. All this is introduced with a series of concrete measurements and research.
The IQM Destination team measures residents’ satisfaction with tourism in the destination, and guests’ satisfaction with tourism in the destination, manages online reputation, then measures the satisfaction of stakeholders (tourism professionals), and everything is compared with local self-government plans in projects important for tourism.
120 indicators of sustainable and responsible tourism are “measured” during the process for each destination
Everyone is involved in the project, from the accommodation and catering establishments to wellness centers, travel agencies, shops and souvenir shops, taxi operators, and companies that manage the parking lot, utilities, and attractions.
Then destination standards are set, which are related to quality, local products, tradition, quality, and trends in tourism. They also prepare marketing analyses of individual stakeholders in the destination for clients, work on product development, private accommodation education, and hotel industry trends.
As Šimičić, a member of the UNWTO expert group for sustainable development, explains, in each destination in the advanced phase of the project, it is proposed to measure the indicators of sustainable and responsible tourism, with the measurement of more than 120 indicators, according to the instructions of the World Tourism Federation.
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