About Vakinn

Independent quality- and environmental assurance is becoming increasingly important for international visitors. Survey results show that travelers prefer companies with a credible and independent quality certification.

Vakinn draws inspiration from Qualmark - New Zealand's Official Mark of Quality in Tourism. Extensive efforts have been dedicated to customizing the system to suit Icelandic conditions, involving collaboration with stakeholders across the tourism sector and engaging specialists from various fields of expertise."

The Vakinn star rating criteria for hotels is, however, composed according to the European Hotelstars system, led by the Hotrec Association.

The primary goal of Vakinn is to enhance quality, safety, and environmental responsibility across the Icelandic tourism sector, while fostering social responsibility among tourist service providers. For companies seeking certification Vakinn serves as a powerful instrument to elevate quality and safety standards, offering supplementary resources, guidelines, data, and checklists geared towards enhancing operational efficiency and promoting sustainable practices.

    Environment, quality, professionalism, cooperation, integrity and purity are the values of Icelandic tourism. 

The Vakinn team at the Icelandic Tourist Board

Alda Þrastardóttir Project manager alda[at]ferdamalastofa.is	Áslaug Briem  Project manager aslaug[at]ferdamalastofa.is	Elías Bj. Gíslason Director elias[at]ferdamalastofa.is

Appeals Committee

At the Icelandic Tourist Board, there is an appeals committee responsible for taking positions on issues and resolving disputes that may arise in connection with inspections between applicants/participants in Vakinn and the inspectors or certification bodies.

If you need to submit comments or a complaint regarding certified companies, you can send them to the email address vakinn@vakinn.is, but the relevant certification body generally handles such complaints involving the ITB.

Appreciation of Contribution

The Icelandic Tourist Board wants to express their gratitude and appreciation towards all those tourism industry specialists who contributed to the compilation of the Vakinn criteria.