The Impact of ISO 9001 Quality Management System Implementation in Tourism SMEs

During the last few decades service industry is one world's economy most growing industries. Modern management science's philosophy considers service quality as a possible standard of excellence for any organisations around the world. The concept of service quality has been presented in the international literature as a reliable index for the evaluation of any organisation results. Service quality is central to the marketing concept, with evidence of strategic links between service quality and overall service performance. On the other hand it is already obvious that the rapid international developments in the business world form new standards and conditions in the organization and production sector. Within this framework enterprises would proceed to the development and use of more effective implements and methods, which will allow them to evaluate the service and product quality as well as the satisfaction of their domestic and foreign clients. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impacts of ISO 9001 on Small and Medium size Tourism Enterprises (SMEs). The main emphasis of the literature review will critically analyse the literature on quality, Total Quality Management (TQM), Quality Management Systems (QMS) and characteristics of ISO (International Standardisation Organisation) systems.