The International Centre of Excellence in Tourism and Hospitality Education or THE-ICE is an international accreditation organisation that is dedicated to the recognition, benchmarking, development and promotion of quality programmes in tourism, hospitality, events and culinary arts (TH&E) education, training and research. It was originally established as an international education initiative of the Australian Federal Government in 2004. It operated as a unit of the Sustainable Tourism Cooperative Research Centre?(STCRC) and at that time the focus of THE-ICE was to (1) recognise excellence in tourism and hospitality education in Australia, (2) to help in furthering the development of that excellence, and (3) to aid in the promotion of that excellence to future international students.
THE-ICE's national network included not only public universities, but also private hotel schools and state owned vocational colleges. Following the end of the government seed-funding period in 2008 THE-ICE was registered as an independent not-for–profit organisation and has since been managed by an Executive Team with all activities being overseen by the Board of Directors who represent both the higher education and vocational training sectors.
Under the strategic advice and guidance of the Board, THE-ICE has expanded globally and today has member institutions in Europe, Asia and Australasia. THE-ICE is also a full member of the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE).