Bluebridge Cook Strait Ferries has earned the country‘s highest accolade for tourism operators, a Gold Sustainable Tourism Business Award rating from Qualmark.

Head of marketing and communications for Bluebridge Cook Strait Ferries Mischa Mannix-Opie says the new Qualmark status is recognition of the significant improvements being made under a customer and growth focused new strategy.

“We‘re delighted to have received this new rating that shows we‘re elevating our customer experience and improving practices across all areas of our passenger service,” she says.

Mannix-Opie says the award takes into account the broad variety of activity under way including new customer benefits, such as the introduction of their partnership with Air New Zealand Airpoints, best practice health and safety initiatives, customer insights research, enhanced on-board experiences and a brand evolution.

Qualmark assessor Gregg Anderson says Bluebridge received the top rating due to its excellent systems, procedures and management practices across the business.

“Bluebridge demonstrated outstanding commitment to all environmental aspects of Qualmark Sustainable Evaluation and also consistently scored highly in areas addressing economic, people and health and safety processes.”

Anderson says the company had made numerous process improvements resulting from research seeking to improve the customer experience from booking through to disembarking.

“There‘s also a real commitment to team development, a strong focus on safety in the workplace and the overall welfare of team members.”

Mannix-Opie says the company is taking a ‘continuous improvement‘ approach to the experience it offers its international and domestic passengers with further developments and initiatives under way.