New occupational standards for the tourism industry will form the basis of all vocational qualifications in the sector.

Published by People 1st, the Sector Skills Council for the hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism sector, the National Occupational Standards (NOS) prioritise the areas of sales and customer service, together with the skills of good organisation and business planning.

All vocational qualifications currently planned would be designed in line with the standards, including ABTA's Accredited Travel Professional scheme, which is due to be piloted in April ahead of national roll out in January 2006.

Employers operating their own training schemes can request their in-house programmes to be mapped to the new standards.

Brian Wisdom, CEO, People 1st, said: "These standards, and the qualifications that will follow, really do represent an opportunity for employers in the travel and tourism industries to raise levels of professionalism. That will mean that we can hang on to our best people, saving the cost and disruption of replacement, thereby delivering a better service to customers, which in turn should increase profitability."