'Discerning travellers' sought, not those on shoestring, says minister
Wednesday, 10 August 2022
New Zealand tourism needs to attract “discerning travellers” and not those travelling on a shoestring, says Minister of Tourism Stuart Nash.
Speaking at the Tourism Export Council of New Zealand annual conference in Nelson on Wednesday, Nash said his vision was for New Zealand to be one of the top three aspirational destinations for the “world’s most discerning travellers”.
“In terms of targeting our marketing spin, it is unashamedly going to be at these high quality tourists.
”We are going to welcome backpackers … [but] we are not going to target the people who put on Facebook how they can travel around our country on $10 a day eating two-minute noodles.”
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Workplace shortages topped the agenda of issues the tourism sector wanted addressed at the conference. Nash announced a draft Better Work Action Plan, the first phase of the Tourism Industry Transformation Plan.
Asked how the Nelson region could accommodate an influx of workers on working holiday visas in the middle of a housing crisis, Nash said the Government was looking at a “whole lot of innovative ways” to draw people into tourism.
He was aware of hotels and motels in Queenstown for instance, which were putting aside accommodation for their workers.
“With the RSE (Recognised Seasonal Employers) for example, a number of orchardists owners are building accommodation for RSE workers. Maybe it is something that those in the tourism sector need to look at.”
Tourism Industry Aotearoa chief executive Rebecca Ingram said that in a recent survey 22% of tourism businesses who responded provided staff with accommodation.
One operator complained of a months-long bureaucratic process with Immigration New Zealand to get the staff they needed.
Nash said the shortage of workers was something that was being felt right across the developed world but he was “determined to take this to the minister of immigration and see what we can do in terms of speeding up that process”.
The border opening was a “significant milestone in our recovery”, he said. However, Nash acknowledged that it had been a “terrible time for many of those in the tourism industry” and certainly for those who had a strong reliance on the international tourism sector.
While there was a lot of “pent-up demand and a lot of interest for what we have to offer”, globally there were some serious economic challenges ahead.
“Conflict in Europe is having global ramifications and I am well aware there are ongoing challenges in rebuilding our workforce. I am not so naive to believe that our recovery will happen overnight. It is a gradual process.”
To build a resilient workforce, tourism needed to be re-marketed to youth as an industry.
“We have done, I believe, a poor job of creating an aspirational career pathway in tourism for young people when they are considering their employment options.
“One of the first challenges is to change the perception of tourism from one of low wages, long hours and precarious in nature, to one of aspiration, one that is fulfilling, with plenty of awesome opportunities anywhere a person may choose to end up.”
Nash said the Tourism Export Council forecasted that the country would have a “near complete recovery of visitor spending in 2025”.