Tourism plaudit a golden moment for our team

A quality museum, gallery or theatre visit is unique for each person, everyone looks for something different in a visitor attraction. For some people, it may be how they’re greeted on arrival - was it warm and welcoming, for others it may be that staff are knowledgeable and share that information freely with visitors. For another group of people, it could be the quality of facilities and whether they’re accessible to all.

At MTG Hawke’s Bay Tai Ahuriri we want all our visitors to leave with that warm fuzzy feeling, you know the one, when you’ve had a special and enjoyable experience. Perhaps you learnt something new, thought about a subject that you hadn’t before, or saw something from a different viewpoint. Maybe you saw inspiring art on the walls that made you stop and reflect on what the artist might have been thinking when they made it. Or it could be that wow moment when you realise you’ve been so engrossed with what you’re seeing and reading that you lost track of time. We want all our visitors to have those wow experiences at MTG, to tell their friends and family about how great it was, to encourage others to visit, and return again themselves.

So how do we go about delivering a high quality customer service – one way is to measure ourselves against industry standards. We’re long standing members of Qualmark, which works with Tourism New Zealand to provide benchmarks, help the industry deliver high-quality experiences and maintain a high level of visitor satisfaction. Qualmark has been around for 30 years and over that time they’ve assessed and guided many businesses to operate sustainably and deliver quality experiences.

Each year Qualmark spends time onsite at MTG, evaluating the museum, gallery and theatre operations and experience. In December last year, the Qualmark assessor came to Te Matau-a-Māui / Hawke’s Bay, looking at our processes and policies, how we interact with our customers and what we offer. They assessed us under the Sustainable Tourism Business criteria which looks at five different pillars: Business Systems, Health and Safety, Environment, People, Community and Culture and rated how well we’re performing - are we just meeting expectations or are we going above and beyond - exemplifying best practice. As part of this process, a written report is provided which acknowledges what we do well and provides suggestions for things we can improve.

MTG has received a Silver accreditation since 2017 and finally, last month, we received our latest evaluation report and we’ve now reached our goal of Gold - so we have stars in our eyes now. 

As a team we feel super pleased and validated to have achieved Gold. It tells us our team are operating at the highest level, delivering amazing gallery experiences and exceptional customer service, something that’s integral to everything we do. From the research and thought behind exhibitions, the care and protection of the collection, amazing design and build work hidden behind the scenes and of course our people who are out the front interacting with you, our community and visitors.

This Gold Sustainable Tourism Accreditation identifies MTG as a front runner in making New Zealand tourism a world-class sustainable visitor experience.

Published in the Hawke’s Bay Today newspaper on 6 April 2024 and written by Debbie Ormsby, Visitor Engagement Manager at MTG Hawke’s Bay.

Image: MTG receives Gold assessment. Photographer David Frost

8 April 2024

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