New Zealand's Kaikoura Helicopters, a GCH Aviation group company, has been awarded the Qualmark Gold award for Sustainable Tourism.

A Gold award recognises the best sustainable tourism businesses in New Zealand, with the delivery of exceptional customer experiences being an integral part of everything they do. A Gold Sustainable Tourism Award identifies those businesses leading the way in making the New Zealand tourism industry a world class sustainable visitor destination.

The award also recognises Kaikoura Helicopters' operation as an environmentally friendly and holistically sustainable experience, where safe principles and practices are part of every flight, and where clients will always find a genuine welcome and true New Zealand hospitality. Kaikoura Helicopters strives to protect the local communities in which it operates, whilst delivering a world class and safe experience for all its visitors.

Group marketing manager Caroline Blanchfield says: “Qualmark is a recognised symbol of excellence for NZ tourism businesses, and we aim to take all our bases through the Qualmark process. Three of our GCH Aviation bases are now Qualmark Gold and we feel a huge sense of achievement as a company in attaining these awards.”

Established in 1983, GCH Aviation is the only company to hold the prestigious Helicopter Association of New Zealand Diamond Safety Award for over 30 years continuous service without injury accident to self, passengers or crew. GCH is headquartered in Christchurch at a purpose-built aviation base at Christchurch airport. With other bases in Nelson, Greymouth, Wellington, Vanuatu and Fiji, the company owns more than 30 aircraft and employs over 120 staff across its helicopter and fixed wing aircraft services, which as well as tourism flights also includes certified flight training, air rescue and air ambulance operations. GCH is the only New Zealand aviation company to be an accredited Virtuoso Travel supplier.

The other Qualmark Gold certified GCH Aviation companies are Garden City Helicopters and Wellington Helicopters.