Speaking at the consortium’s annual overseas conference in Monaco, Jo Causon, chief executive of the Institute of Customer Service awarded TTNG the organisation’s ServiceMark, a recognition “of achievement in customer service, and a company’s commitment to upholding those standards”.

“It’s not easy to achieve, and not something we give freely. It’s a mark of showing excellence…something you should be very, very proud of,” she said.

Describing ServiceMark to delegates, Causon said the accolade was about simply about passing or failing during a one-off timeframe but “upholding standards and really driving to be the best you can be”.

Organisations who wish to obtain the accreditation must be assessed by the Institute of Customer Service on factors such as their customer satisfaction levels an employee engagement with customer service strategy, with Causon adding that due to the stringent process: “They [TTNG] have done exceptionally well in this.”

She revealed that TTNG had increased its member satisfaction performance by 15 points and eight points for staff engagement since it was first measured by the institute in early 2015.

TTNG had improved its overall customer satisfaction score from 76.1 to a current grade of 83.9 in that time.

Across nationwide industries, the tourism sector as a whole is in third place for customer service, according to the institute, with retail topping its charts.

Tourism’s score of 80.7 ranked higher than the national average of 78.2, with Jet2holidays placed third among UK firms behind online shopping giant Amazon in first and bank First Direct in second.

Within travel itself Premier Inn and P&O Cruises achieved second and third places respectively behind Jet2holidays.