The QualityCoast Award is a recognition
for coastal communities that are proving and presenting
good overall performance in sustainable development; providing
transparent information to residents and visitors; planning
for future improvements. It is an independent certification
of the coastal community and its services (including tourism)
which makes use of 20 QualityCoast criteria.
Information about these criteria is provided by the community
on its entire territory. In addition to the Award, communities
can receive specific recognition in three categories: Nature,
Environment and Socio-Economics. Communities that have received
an Award have the status of QualityCoast Community (or Destination),
a status which is reviewed every two years.
The QualityCoast Award will be attributed by the Coastal
& Marine Union (EUCC) on the basis of an assessment
that is reviewed by an international Jury. For each application,
EUCC designates a jury composed of at least three members
including 1 independent member who is aware of the applicant
community and 1 permanent member from EUCC. In order to
ensure its independence, the Jury will work anonymously.
The Jury will review the assessment report and assign final
scores for all 20 criteria, ranging from 0 to 5 points;
‘0’ indicating very poor quality, or absence
of information provided for a criterion; ‘5’
indicating excellence for a criterion.
The average of points assigned for each criterion and the
sum of all points scored for the complete set of 20 criteria
will be calculated. This will be the final score. Applicants
scoring ‘0’ in three or more criteria will not
be eligible for the QualityCoast Award, regardless the total
points scored in the other criteria.
Communities collecting no less than 57 points will be granted
a QualityCoast Award. This will be accompanied by suggestions
for further improvement and/or recommendations to exchanges
information with other partners.
If the QualityCoast Award is granted, a Certificate of Excellence will also be attributed in those categories (Nature, Environment, and Socio-economics) in which the applicant gained ≥80% of the maximum points available for the criteria within these categories. Such excellence will be symbolized by a starfish that will be integrated in the QualityCoast banners (that are available next to flags).
Successful applicants will receive an invitation to the next international QualityCoast Award Ceremony and Workshop, where they will receive the QualityCoast Award and the certifications. QualityCoast destinations will also be included in the joint marketing programme through internet, joint brochures and other publications. The awarded communities will be offered 1 QualityCoast flag and 1 QualityCoast banner, but they can also order extra flags and banners (at a cost basis), which can be displayed throughout the community territory during 24 months. One year after the application the QualityCoast destinations are requested to update their information for the public website and brochure(s). Two years after their application the QualityCoast destination will be requested to submit an updated QualityCoast Application form to be reviewed again by the QualityCoast Jury. The assessment of the new application will take into consideration the coherence between the improvements indicated in the previous one and the integration of the suggestions and notes indicated by the QualityCoast Jury.
Unsuccessful applicants will receive an Assessment Report
with the findings of the QualityCoast Jury. This report
will include suggestions on improvements on weak aspects
encouraging the Partner to improve its performance. If the
QualityCoast Award is not granted, a Progress Certificate
may be given to the coastal communities that have shown
clear efforts to improve, and consider improvements in the
future. An application can be unsuccessful as a result of
a lack of information provided by the applicant. Therefore,
unsuccessful applicants are encouraged to improve their
application file and resubmit; within six months after the
first application there will be no additional cost for the
applicant. And all registered applicants, whether successful
or not, will be invited to the annual QualityCoast Workshop.
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