Time to Rebrand Tourism as a Long Term Career

Cas Carter highlights what needs to be done to make employment in the tourism industry more attractive

Fancy a job in the tourism industry? It’s a helluva place to be: underpaid, poor working conditions, seasonality and shonky career opportunities.

Well, that’s what many have been saying about the tourism industry for years, but it’s a reputation that needs to be fixed urgently.

Pre-pandemic, tourism accounted for a tenth of global GDP and jobs, but COVID halved the industry’s value, and in New Zealand 90,000 tourism jobs were lost - one out of four.

But now with the industry, including aviation, reporting unprecedented demand from travellers, it needs to attract a whole new workforce.

In New Zealand, the supposed jewel in the crown of tourism, Queenstown has about 600 vacancies in a town with a population under 16,000.

There is an urgency in the winter destination staffing up for the ski season, with Australians amping to cross the Tasman and get on to our snow.

Previously the industry has relied on immigrants to fill jobs, but the slowness of visa processing has them under stress.

It’s time to rebrand tourism as a desirable industry with longterm career prospects that kiwis want to work in.

I recall pre-pandemic attending the New Zealand Tourism Awards. The room was buzzing with an industry on a high. I saw people that had made a career out of tourism - those I’d first met in the 1990s who had moved into management positions or successfully invested in their own businesses.

Despite its reputation as a job until you get a real one, many stay in tourism for life and there is a good reason for that.

In my experience working in the industry, it was incredibly positive, a natural fit for New Zealanders who enjoy people, showing off their gorgeous country and the outdoors. Pre-Covid the industry I knew was largely full of people feeling lucky to love going to work every day.

And yet tourism still has a reputation that it does not offer a career.

The need to make the tourism industry more compelling as a career has been the subject of projects, groups, papers, associations and mentoring programmes including the Young Tourism Export Council programme. Last year, a New Zealand Government initiative - Go With Tourism Workforce Wananga - came up with ways to improve and build the workforce.

But the industry must do more than navel gazing - it needs to find some ambassadors to advocate, while also needing to make some adjustments.

First, beloved industry, you pay rubbish money for new entrants and in this hot labour market there are too many other better paid options.

Your current shortage of staff could be addressed by promoting progressive career options with ongoing training and career development to potential staff.

Fortunately for you, not everyone is motivated by money. Deloitte research shows that Gen Zers bring quite different values to the workplace. This includes catering for diversity and inclusion equity, not just for race and gender, but also to identity and orientation.