QualityCoast Programme

Applicants to a QualityCoast policy awards (Bronze to Platinum) are expected to confirm their commitment to:

Municipal, regional and island authorities interested to apply for a QualityCoast policy award can register (for free) as follows:

Important: neighbouring communities can make one joint application

A coherent group of municipalities can jointly apply for a QualityCoast policy award if they are:

together forming a small island or a small region
if the municipalities are cooperating in tourism marketing as one island or regional destination and not as separate municipalities;
if the municipalities can show common policies toward sustainable development of the territory

Communities / municipalities intending to make a joint application can indicate this in the Registration Form, providing clear evidence on the above criteria.
EUCC will then consider such a request for one application term (2 years) at the time, but it can prolong joint application status for every next application.

In case this is agreed, only one Application Form needs to be completed for the island or region. In some cases EUCC will request information about individual municipalities for QualityCoast BasiQ scan indicators (on a separate form).

Once the registration is accepted, applicants can start completing the following steps:

a) Download the QualityCoast Award 2012 Application Form at www.qualitycoast.net. Make sure you are using the latest version.

b) Fill in the Application Form electronically. See Annex II of this Manual for details;

c) Prepare an online map of the territory, using the Google maps tool (see Annex III for details);

d) Select 10 high quality digital pictures (preferably 2000 x 3000 pixels, free of copyright for us) that well illustrate some of the criteria. These pictures will be used in the brochure and public website, in case the applicant is awarded. We also need the digital logo of the applicant (300 dpi).

e) Prepare and annex to the application form all relevant documents that you consider useful for the assessment and are referred in the application. Please check whether the QualityCoast Team is able to read the language of the annexes.

f) Please send the completed Application Form, pictures and annexes (digital format on a CD/DVD or USB pen drive) by post to:

or by e-mail to: , marked QualityCoast Application + Name of Destination. Please note that e-mail annexes larger than 4 MB will not arrive.

After acceptance of the Application by EUCC, the non-reimbursable application fee, which amount depends on the size of the applicant (see table below), should be paid to:

Please note that the assessment process will only start after receipt of the payment.
The fee will cover the cost of the assessment and review process by the QualityCoast Jury and serve as a contribution to common international publicity (page in the QualityCoast brochure and website etc.).

*Please note that we will not charge 19% VAT on the fees for applicants who have a VAT number and send it to us.

“Early-birds” applicants that submit the application and pay the application fee no later than 21 November 2011 will be granted a discount of 30% of the application fee. Furthermore, the QualityCoast Secretariat will do a “quick-scan” on the application to assess completeness/adequacy of the information provided. The applicant will receive notification on necessary clarifications by 1 December, after which they will be able to submit a final version until 15 December.
All applicants are encouraged to apply in this early period: 3 years of experience on QualityCoast assessments show that the majority of applicants initially fail to provide some required information, which usually reduces the final score obtained.

QualityCoast BasiQ awarded destinations, including the ones of 2011 QualityCoast South European Top 50, the 2011 QualityCoast Top 10 for the Netherlands and destinations in Nord Europe which have been informed by us that they have QualityCoast BasiQ score 7 or higher are granted a discount of 30% of the application fee but only for their first award application. Both discounts (for BasiQ awarded destinations and early birds) can be combined. In this way early QualityCoast BasiQ awarded destinations applicants can claim a 60% discount.