The origins of the Quality Management Systems were developed in an environment totally productive, which was the dominant sector of the 20th century, but from the second half of it began to develop more and more the services sector, to the point that currently the economy of many countries is based in an important proportion of activities such tourism in its different forms (beach, indoor, sports, adventure). Additionally, the growth that services have shown during the last decades, the consumer behavior of these has been characterized by a high level of demand, which is why Management Systems have been developed in order to adapt to the increasingly important sectors of Health, Tourism, Education and Leisure.

Currently, there are a lot of quality standards developed specifically, as may be the Q of ICTE for tourist services, or the standard UNE 175001-1:2004 that contains the general requirements for services quality of small businesses. The Valencian Foundation of Quality has developed an assessment model in order to give the stamp of “Excellence Trade” to small businesses that find in this recognition of quality a medium of differentiation and competitive advantage.

Although currently there are a great variety of sectorial regulations, the implementation of a Quality Management System based on the standard ISO 9001:2008 or the EFQM Excellence Model is important in order to generate the structure of basic management.