Muslim Friendly Tourism:
Regulating Accommodation Establishments
In the OIC Member Countries
27
2.2 Development Process for Tourism Quality Standards and Regulations
Legal requirements for national accommodation quality standards vary from one country to
another. However, conventional standards are generally developed through a number of
common steps, which include: forming a body to set the standard, reviewing the context,
collecting stakeholder input, developing and issuing a draft, revising the draft based on
feedback, publicizing and issuing the new standard, developing inspection capacity,
conducting initial ratings, revisiting and recertifying periodically.
Many accommodation rating standards require no special legal steps to be proposed or
adopted, especially those established by industry associations or independent third parties,
such as in the case of the American Automobile Association [AAA). However, where the state
sets the standards or makes them obligatory, some legislation or government action is
enacted, as in the case of the regulations in the Philippines and Egypt. In the case of standards
adopted by a regional body such as the ASEAN Green Hotel standard, approval by relevant
national ministries may be required. When seven countries from HOTREC established the
Hotelstars Union standard in 2009, six were able to adopt the standard without legislative
action, as the standard is optionally overseen by local hotel associations. Only in Hungary,
where an existing mandatory state standard prevailed 42, was special government action
needed 43 to adopt the Hotelstars standard.
Standard setting bodies generally follow some common steps in developing a new standard.
While the WTO has not issued official, global hotel quality standards, it is often involved in the
development of such standards in various areas. It offers a suite of services to support
accommodation stakeholders in the development of standards, which are outlined in the
following table. The WTO followed many of these steps during a recent project to help Egypt
update its tourism quality standards, which included the review of existing criteria,
development of new criteria, training of local inspectors, and communication of new
criteria.44 The table below also outlines the steps followed to establish the Philippine Hotel
Star Rating system.
42 Diana Foris. "Comparative Analysis of Hotel Classification and Quality Mark in Hospitality." Journal of Tourism and
Hospitality Management 2.1 (2014): 26-39. David Publishing, 29 Apr. 2014. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.
43 Hotel Classification The Founding of the Hotelstars Union to Lead to Harmonised Hotelstars in Europe." HOTELSTARS -
Press Release. Hotelstars, 14 Dec. 2009. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.
44 Project Summary: Review and Implementation of the New Hotel Classification System . Rep. UNWTO, 9 May 2013. Web. 17
Oct. 2016.