Safe, Clean, Legal COVID-19 Accreditation

Tourism and hospitality have been two of the hardest hit sectors as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Visit Isle of Man team is focused on supporting the industry and helping to prepare businesses for when the Island can begin to welcome visitors again.

It is important for the Island’s tourism businesses to champion new visitor expectations and to build levels of confidence in our destination offering, as the Isle of Man will be in a very competitive market place when borders reopen.

The accreditation has been launched in conjunction with tourism and hospitality quality assessment provider; Quality In Tourism (QiT). QiT has been assessing hospitality and tourism properties to set and improve industry standards across the UK for over 15 years, with Visit Isle of Man having worked with the assessor for over 13 years.

The QiT accreditation will involve an independent third party assessment, which is subsequently performed annually and grades a business as safe and compliant based on a number of strict factors, rather than personal opinion. Assessment criteria includes cleaning protocols and compliance, public safety measures and staff training, ensuring the accreditation framework remains robust and relevant to provide increased consumer confidence.

Visit Isle of Man will be offering the accreditation to Island accommodation, activity & attraction providers and Taste eateries, free of charge.

Deborah Heather, Director, Quality In Tourism comments:

"Since the Accreditation was relaunched across the UK to include COVID-19 protocols, QiT has accredited over 10,000 businesses. The Scheme has been recommended by Which? magazines’ Jo Rhodes, who described it as “robust” in comparison to the “box ticking” alternatives, which can damage consumer trust.

‘Clean, Safe, Legal, Covid-19™ has been adopted by businesses across the UK in Europe, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. The Isle of Man has always been a market leader in the area of compliance, a factor which has now never been so important to consumers when making buying decisions; with safety and trust predicted to be the most important criteria influencing consumers going forward."

John Keggin, Owner of Island Escapes, one of the first travel and tourism providers’ on-Island to be awarded the accreditation, comments:

"At Island Escapes we recognise the importance of a sparkling clean holiday home, and it was a pleasure to be asked to pilot the new Safe, Clean & Legal™ Covid-19 award on the Isle of Man. The assessment process was straight forward and the virtual assessment, hassle free. Having the award will give Island Escapes that much sought after ‘book with confidence’ message that visitors will be looking for in the post-COVID era and it provides me with the comfort that the properties in our portfolio are meeting the required standards."

Key benefits of the scheme:

Guidance notes for each industry segment.
Cleaning protocol information.
Templates for Risk Assessment completion, focussed on the customer journey and staff exposure.
3rd party desktop checks of Risk Assessments and scoring of risk levels.
Assessor property visit.
Assessor report.
Digital accolade and certificate.

QiT will be delivering a series of complimentary training and educational webinars for industry over the coming months. The first in the series took place in December introducing the Safe, Clean, Legal, Covid-19™ scheme to industry; focusing on the importance of promoting consumer confidence, exploring the benefits to businesses of obtaining the accreditation and an overview to the accreditation process. We will be repeating this webinar in the New Year for any providers that were unable to join.

Read walking activity provider, Go-Mann Adventures, expererience of signing up to the Safe, Clean, Legal COVID-19 accreditation experience here.

What do I need to do to gain the QiT Safe, Clean & Legal™ COVID-19 accreditation?

There are 4 steps you will need to complete in order to achieve the Safe, Clean & Legal™ COVID-19accreditation.

Please take the time to read through the stages and documents in the links below before embarking on completing and reviewing what process and procedures you already have in place.

If you have any questions at all please contact Quality in Tourism at hello@qualityintourism.com and they will be happy to help you.

Step 1 - Read through the Cleaning Protocols Guidance Document

Please click this link to view the Cleaning Protocols Document

This exercise provides you with:

A chance for your company to self-audit all current protocols and processes.
Check to ensure your current processes, protocols cleaning regimes, staff training is fit for purpose?
Help you to identify gaps in your procedures and create new ones.
The opportunity to back fill your knowledge and showcase best practice.

Step 2 – Read through the Best Practice Guidelines for your business

Using the links at the bottom of this page, read through the Guidelines relevant to your business type.

These guidelines can be used as a tool to create new procedures, protocols, regimes, staff training and very importantly compliance documentation (cleaning checklists / cleaning schedules).
They can also be used to help back fill your knowledge and highlight gaps in current procedures.

Step 3 - Complete the Risk Assessment

Using the links at the bottom of this page, complete the risk assessment using the template relevant to your business type.

This template document outlines all the aspects of the business protocols and processes to be risk assessed.
Completion will give the proof that actions within the cleaning protocols and best practice guidelines documents have been adhered to, and good practice has been applied in all areas of the Risk Assessment.

Step 4 - Submit your Risk Assessment

Already assessed by QiT?

If you are registered with QiT for your bi/annual assessment (star grading/quality assurance) they already have all of your details. All that is left is for you to submit your completed Risk Assessment via email to the team at hello@qualityintourism.com.

Not an existing QiT member? –

If you are not already registered with QiT please register here: www.qit.uk.com/qtapplication/registration . For all attraction providers please select “non accommodation”, for Taste Eateries “taste” and for all others the appropriate Safe, Clean & Legal™ COVID-19accommodation designation. Once you have completed your Risk Assessment template, please email it to the team at Quality in Tourism at hello@qualityintourism.com.

If you have any questions at all please contact the Assessors using this email address hello@qualityintourism.com and they will be happy to help you.

What happens next?

Quality in Tourism Assessors will work through your Risk Assessment to ensure all risks have been mitigated. If the Assessor has any questions, they will be in touch with you.

Once your Risk Assessment has been approved you will:

Receive a certificate of compliance and a PDF of the QiT Safe, Clean & Legal™ COVID-19 logo to use across your online and offline marketing
Your listing on the Visit Isle of Man website will be updated with the QiT Safe, Clean & Legal™ COVID-19 logo
Quality in Tourism Assessors will check your Risk Assessment against your practices and procedures when they next visit your businesses to carry out your quality (star rating) assessment.

Taste Eateries

QT SCL Restaurants & Bars Guidelines (Guidelines)

QT SCL Risk Assessment Bar & Restaurant (Risk Assessment)

Attractions

QT SCL Attractions (Guidelines)

QT SCL Risk Assessment Template Visitor Attractions (Risk Assessment)

Accommodation