ACCT and ISO
If you have ever been interested in photography, you may have wondered why shutter speeds are called “ISO levels”. Well, that’s because prior to the digital camera age, you had to buy different types of film for different lighting conditions (ISO400 or ISO800 and so on) and the standards that defined those ratings were developed by the international standards organization known as ISO. Have you ever seen a company say they were ISO9001 certified? That's because it’s the world’s best-known quality management standard, used across all industries to demonstrate that a company’s products and services adhere to a rigorous quality assurance process. ISO standards are so ubiquitous, you probably have a household item within reach of you right now that has been produced with or certified to ISO standards.
ISO is one of the world’s oldest non-governmental organizations, and it has enabled trade and cooperation between people and companies the world over since 1946. Membership in ISO is only open to national standards institutes or similar organizations that represent standardization in their country. ISO has members from the standards organizations of 171 countries, it has published over 25,000 international standards, and it has over 800 technical committees and subcommittees that develop standards in different industries.
ISO Technical Committee 228 (ISO/TC228) writes standards for “Tourism and Related Services”, and one of their subcommittees (ISO/TC 228/WG7) specifically focuses on “Adventure Tourism”. In 2023 one of our friends in the industry, who is on this subcommittee representing the standards organization in his country, informed us that WG7 was beginning the development of a standard for the aerial adventure industry. ACCT then applied and was accepted to WG7 as a technical liaison. This means that we will have a proverbial “seat at the table” as the standards development process unfolds in this ISO work group over the next few years, and we couldn’t be more excited about this opportunity.
Given the significance of this work with ISO, and what it will mean for the harmonization efforts with an international standard for our industry, Board Chair Korey Hampton decided she wanted to get herself to France this year for the annual ISO/TC228 meetings, to represent ACCT in person. Don’t worry though, Korey loves travelling to France, so she was happy to make the ‘sacrifice’. It was a great week in Marseille, and we were even able to have our Executive Director Melissa Webb and TIRE member Rich Klajnscek join by phone for one of the meetings, to listen in on progress. There was a lot of work done, a lot of friendships forged, and a lot of fun had by all – those tourism folks really do know how to enjoy a city!
Of note, a critical step in the process was achieved during the Marseille meetings - the drafting of the scope statement for the standard and the determination of which standards would be used as source material for the first draft. We are happy to report that the ACCT standards have been accepted by this work group and will be submitted as part of the basis for this project. All in all, it was an incredible week, and we look forward to participating in the standards process moving forward. We’ll keep everyone posted as there is more to report in the upcoming months and years. Until then, we’re marking our calendars for next year’s annual in-person ISO/TC228 meetings in Brazil, and dreaming of all the ‘shoulds’ and ‘shalls’ that are in our future.
