What is SICTED about?
The Sistema Integral de Calidad Turística en Destino: SICTED, (Integrated System for Quality Tourism Destinations, or SICTED in Spanish) is a project fostered by the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces and funded by the General Secretariat of Tourism. Its purpose is to guide the quality strategies of tourist destinations through four complementary procedures:
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The creation of a Management Body, to establish a technical organisational structure in which the destination’s agents participate. This body designs the promotion and projection of the destination and facilitates collaboration between different government offices and sectors.
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Collection and analysis of information via a Control Board, which enables the destination to perform self-evaluation, establish priorities for action and exchange data and experiences with destinations with similar philosophies.
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A working method based on models of excellence (EFQM) of proven efficacy, which seeks to implement collective improvement projects in the destination.
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Advisory services for businesses in the destination that voluntarily adapt to a best practices model in quality service, regardless of their characteristics, but with special emphasis on those in greatest need based on their available resources. This effort is recognised through a national award.
Guides have now been developed for 24 types of businesses and services:
Travel Agencies
Hostels
Car Rental
Artisans
Bars and Cafés
Camping Facilities
Rural Accommodation
Tourism Businesses
Convention Bureaus
Active Tourism
Nature Areas
Ski Resorts
Tour Guides
Hotels and Apartments
Tourist Offices
Conference Organisers
Conference Centres
Beaches
Marinas
Local Police
Restaurants
Taxis
Tourist points of interest (museums, interpretation centres, etc.)
What characterises and differentiates SICTED from everything else up to now?
SICTED aims to achieve three basic objectives:
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Methodologically, it seeks to achieve an umbrella system, adaptable to each destination, capable of adding to and complementing other quality projects.
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Strategically, it acts as an observatory of the destination, promoting Quality by harmonising the levels of performance in each sector, fostering long-term comprehensive actions and reinforcing the business network.
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Operationally, it provides global awareness of the destination, coordinating the agents that participate in tourism activities and designing products that are suitable for the market trends.
SICTED’s goal is to become a unique, overall model in the sense that it provides a generalised application tool to carry out Quality management control in any tourist destination defined as such.
The majority of the public and private agents are aware of and support the system, participate in designing it and benefit from its use.
It is flexible and adaptable to different territorial units (towns, cities, counties, geographic areas, regions or autonomous regions) or types of destinations, regardless of their characteristics.
It is compatible with other Quality models and tools in the tourism sector, particularly the Plan de Calidad Turístico Español (Spanish Quality Tourism Plan, or PICTE in Spanish)
It is a benchmark system, by allowing for comparisons of the Quality provided in destinations of similar characteristics.
