If you ask a foreign tourist what is typically German, they might mention the autobahns, Heidelberg or Munich’s Hofbräuhaus. And many would add that it is also typically German for everything to be regulated and standardised. From plugs to instructions for televisions in hotel rooms, there are standards for everything imaginable. The many thousands of standards also include one (DIN 820) which sets out how a standard is to be written.

No area of life and no product can escape standardisation. But it is often not realised that standards are generally agreements reached within an industry, which are of great practical value. Standards provide transparency for consumers and increase trust in an industry’s products and services. Politicians benefit from standards because they implement laws and regulations, thus reducing parliament’s workload. And they help multinational companies to access new markets.

Standards for products and services

There is nowadays an ever-increasing focus on standards concerning service provision. Services are performed at the same time in many different places by different people, but the results need to be comparable and have to meet high standards. A well-known example is ISO 9001:2000. Today, hundreds of thousands of companies work in accordance with this standard, which applies worldwide, in order to make their internal processes efficient and customer-orientated, and to achieve certification.

Standards are neither an end in themselves nor an obstacle to business, but rather the doorway to markets which every company needs to open if it wants to gain market access. Standards in themselves have no commercial end; they are neutral. But products which are certified in accordance with the applicable standards tend to enjoy better chances of commercial success.


After the standard comes certification

In order for quality to be ensured in a systematic way, certifications of standards have developed. Often, state control has been replaced by certification. Products, services and whole companies are nowadays certified. This relies on checks carried out on the basis of the applicable standards and statutory requirements – such as adherence to maximum limits or health and safety requirements – by independent and neutral inspection companies such as TÜV Rheinland. For consumers, business customers and public bodies, a certificate provides evidence that the applicable standards and legal requirements have been observed.

The tourism industry is a concrete example of this. Central to TÜV Rheinland’s tourism inspection work is the aim of achieving more safety and quality. This includes checks of technical equipment – from lifts and fire alarms to playgrounds – and inspections of management systems. Certification is done on the basis of internationally-recognised standards such as ISO 9000 (quality management), ISO 14000 (environmental management) and ISO 22000 (food safety), in addition to special tourism standards.

Social standards and environmental protection in tourism

Inspection services are subject to continuous development and are offered to ever more markets. This has increased awareness of neutral tests of quality and safety in African destinations, above all in South Africa and Kenya. The work of TÜV Rheinland aims at making Africa an attractive and internationally-competitive tourist destination, as already achieved in the case of South Africa. For 2009, planned projects include those with the Kenya Wildlife Service, which manages the country’s national parks, and the Ministry of Tourism.

In this, environmental management, social standards and the involvement of the local community are all taken into account. In developing countries in particular, tourism facilities can lead to tensions with the local community, if the latter is not sufficiently involved in the value-creation chain. TÜV Rheinland is currently planning the implementation of projects to achieve more sustainability in tourism, with various partners from outside Europe. For example, together with Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG – German Investment and Development Company), TÜV Rheinland is starting a public-private partnership to provide certification in accordance with the TÜV Rheinland eco-hotel standard.

Contact
Michael Weppler
Managing director, TÜV Rheinland Systeme
Phone: +49 221 / 806-4443
Email: michael.weppler@de.tuv.com
Internet: www.tuv.com