Fewer backpackers and visa delays a double whammy for hospo and tourism businesses

Monday, 2 December 2019

Backpacker businesses want tourism New Zealand to front up over a significant drop in the youth travel market. (First published May 2019)

Peak tourist season is shaping up to be a nightmare for many businesses struggling to fill jobs and Tourism New Zealand is copping some of the blame.

A drop in younger travellers and difficulty getting work visas is proving a double whammy for operators who traditionally welcome backpackers as both customers and employees.

Backpacker Youth and Adventure Tourism Association (BYATA) chair Luke Taylor said some of its members had seen a 10 per cent drop in visitors aged 18 to 29, and that in turn affected the numbers on working holiday visas.

'Hostels and backpacker brands, they're doing it tough.

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'Not only do we not see these people coming through the business, we don't have the flow on in the youth and backpacker market, people who're staying for 12 months, or may be a little longer, to work and play, so we're getting squeezed at both ends.'

Over the past three years the number of working holiday visas issued has dropped by more than 9800 to 55,792.

'We're particularly noticing a decline in those core demographics of Australia, UK and Europe. It's more difficult to get the visa and New Zealand is less attractive as a destination as a working holiday.

The new YHA hostel at Lake Tekapo relies heavily on overseas visitors on working holiday visas to staff the hostel, bar and cafe.

'The youth traveller to New Zealand is a really important to our economy and we want to make sure we're not turning the tap off,' said Taylor.

The Youth Hostel Association relies heavily on overseas workers to staff some of its more remote locations, such as Mount Cook and Franz Josef.

Hostel operations manager Simon Cartwright said its new Tekapo hostel, which has a bar and restaurant, required 30 staff and most were on working holidays.

Lack of housing was a major problem and Cartwright said they simply could not operate without providing worker accommodation

'You're paying up to $700 a week in rent in Tekapo for a three bedroom house so for obvious reasons Kiwis won't go there, it's just not viable, it's Auckland rents.'

Queenstown bar and restaurant owner Chris Buckley needs about 45 staff over summer for his two premises and is currently 10 short.

He said there was a three month wait to have work visa applications processed, and backpackers taking shorter OEs further exacerbated staffing shortages.

'We're seeing a heck of a lot less of them … in the past they might stay a year or six months, now they only stay three months.'

Former accountant turned tour guide Leon Liu was the first person hired through a website which matches job seekers with tourism businesses needing staff.

Buckley said service standards suffered if there weren't sufficient hands on deck and that tended to be reflected in negative online reviews.

'We like to give international guests a good experience and you're not going to do that if you don't have enough staff to do the job.'

Statistics NZ figures for the year to the end of September showed arrivals for 15 to 24-year-olds down 5634, a 1.3 per cent drop.

Global economic uncertainty has been blamed for the downturn in the youth market, but BYATA said Tourism New Zealand's lack of support for the sector had also played a part.

'We used to see New Zealand, and Queenstown in particular, promoted as the adventure capital of the world, and we just don't have that promotion any more.'

TNZ chief executive Stephen England-Hall said they continued to support the backpacker and youth market through a PR and media strategy based on 'passion points' relevant to a younger audience, and by working with youth focused tour operators.

The tourism industry has estimated it will need an additional 40,000 employees by 2024 and is trying to convince more Kiwis to consider the sector as a career option.

In August it received a $5.2m grant from the new international visitor levy to expand online recruitment site Go with Tourism.

Launched in April, it has so far matched 100 of the 1000 registered job seekers with Auckland employers.

The website was extended to Queenstown in October and is due to launch in Northland next week, in Canterbury in February, and will be gradually rolled out to other regions on a monthly basis.