Meeting Report - ISO TC228 Tourism and related services Plenary (2 June 2021)
ISO Technical Committee 228 (Tourism and related services) met on 2 June virtually to take stock of developments over the past year. Several new proposals for standardisation initiatives were also put forward.
New initiatives - China proposes standard on OTAs
The main development to report is a proposal from China to develop an ISO standard on 'Online accommodation booking platform services'. It is however unclear at this stage whether the committee will go ahead with developing this standard and what kind of timeframe will be followed. A key concern raised by meeting particapnts was potential overlap with the work of ISO TC 324 (Collaborative Economy services).
China proposes the initiative on the basis of a standards developed nationally in China (T/CCPITCSC 030—2019 Specifications for service of online accommodation platform and T/CCPITCSC 051—2020 Specifications for hotel pre-sale service of online accommodation platform).
HOTREC has highlighted its intention to contribute to development of such a standard should the TC228 decide to go ahead with it. HOTREC however takes note that the current intentions seem to be geared towards strengthening the market capacity and power of OTAs and will as such be very vigilant in future talks. During the meeting, HOTREC highlighted that direct bookings remain paramount for the hotel industry and that hotels are typically the weaker party when dealing with OTAs.
China also proposed the development of a standard on 'Online Tourism Information Services', though this appeared to gather mixed reactions from particpants.
The World Tourism Cities Federation put forward a proposal for the development of a standard on 'Brand Evaluation for Tourism Cities'.
Key updates from the Working Groups
Working Group 18 was in charge of developing the ISO PAS 5643 'Requirements and guidelines to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in the tourism industry'. As ISO PAS 5643 has now been adopted, WG18 is disbanded. It was clarified that ISO TC228 chose to develop a Publicly Available Specification rather than an International standard as the procedure is faster and more flexible.
Working Group 14 on Accessible Tourism has finalised the standard 'Tourism and related services —Accessible tourism for all —Requirements and recommendations'. The standard is expected to be published soon this summer.
Working Group 15 on Accommodation finalised the standard on hotel service requirements in 2020. Other ongoing initiatives include the development of a standard for Heritage Hotels and a standard for the 'Vocabulary for Hotels and Other types of accommodation', which will define terms used in the tourism industry in relation to the various types of tourism accommodation and their related services. Both these initiatives have now reached Final Draft International Standard (FDIS) stage.
Working Group 16 on Restaurants is pursuing work on a standard for 'Traditional Restaurants'. Work is at Draft International Standard (DIS) stage. A new initiative aiming to set out standardised terminology for restaurants may be developed next.
In addition to the updates from key working groups dealing with relevant services for HOTREC and Members, presentations were made by the working groups on 'Diving' (WG1), 'Health Tourism (WG2), 'Adventure Tourism' (WG7), 'Yacht Harbours' (WG8), 'Sustainable Tourism' (WG13) and 'Tourist Visits' (WG17). Please contact the HOTREC secretariat at [email protected] should you wish to receive these meeting reports.
Further documents: