A SYSTEM pioneered by businesses in Worcestershire has been adopted on the other side of the world as part of a scheme to encourage and promote sustainable tourism in New Zealand.

Chiefs at Qualmark, New Zealand's mark of quality tourism, have been so impressed by the work being carried out by the UK-based Green Tourism Business Scheme (GTBS) that they've decided to take on board their practices. Standards adopted by at least three leading Worcestershire businesses as part of GTBS, the UK's leading accreditation body for sustainable tourism, have been at the forefront of the new scheme being introduced down under.

The Ramada Hotel and Resort in Kidderminster, The Old Rectory Hotel in Whitbourne, along with Hidelow House Cottages self-catering business in Acton Beauchamp have helped pioneer the expansion of the scheme across the UK and now the standards they have set are being copied across the world.

Members of the GTBS have to achieve a minimum standard from more than 120 separate measures to qualify for a range of bronze, silver and gold awards.

The scheme's assessment criteria focus on a wide range of areas from ensuring best management practice and energy saving right through to buying local produce and caring for wildlife and the landscape.

The standards set by GTBS provide the sort of verifiable criteria that bosses at New Zealand's Qualmark scheme are looking to inject into their assessment systems by the start of next year.

Qualmark's chief executive Geoff Penrose said: "We have made significant progress in the past fortnight as we've had the benefit of working with two specialists in environmental tourism, Andrea Nicholas and Jon Proctor of the Green Tourism Business Scheme, a national sustainable tourism accreditation scheme operating in the UK."