POLICY WATCH: New strategies to build a strong tourism workforce

IXL Long Bar - The Henry Jones Art Hotel, Adam Gibson

Ok, so it might be hard to believe right now, with large parts of the country in lockdown and hard borders in place with some of our largest visitor markets, but we are still working on the expectation of a busy peak visitor season this summer.

The visitor numbers over the first part of this year before the latest delta disruption, along with the tracking of consumer travel preferences and forward bookings, all gives confidence that once we hit the magic vaccine rate and border restrictions are lifted permanently, demand for Tasmania will spike. And quickly. The T21 Steering Committee, bringing together the senior government and industry representatives, continues to meet regularly to consider and prioritise responses to each disruption to our visitor economy, while also planning for the inevitable recovery and growth that will occur. One area that is dominating our attention is how we plan to meet the demand for workers across our tourism and hospitality sectors, should we have that bumper summer season.

Jam Packed Cafe - The Henry Jones Art Hotel, Adam Gibson

Like so many parts of Tasmania’s visitor economy, our workforce has also been heavily disrupted. Many Tasmanians left our industry through 2020, taking their highly transferrable skills to other high-demand areas like aged care. While the international border restrictions literally closed the gate on our army of visa workers that have previously filled critical skill gaps across the industry, particularly in our regional areas. This left many businesses critically under-staffed over the past few busy months, and a lot of very exhausted operators across the state. It also exposed some critical skill gaps, particularly in our hospitality sector, that inevitably compromised the quality of the visitor experience. We simply must have some new solutions in place this summer to ensure operators have the staff to meet expected visitor demand. Over the next few months, you will see the State Government, with the tourism and hospitality industries, roll out some practical initiatives designed to bring Tasmanians back to our industry, up-skill the Tasmanians we have, and invite some interstate tourism and hospitality professionals to consider spending a few months working in our industry. Central to this will be a new website that will list in one place all the tourism and hospitality job vacancies across Tasmania, along with the training available in the market. This site will be a game changer for employers across the tourism and hospitality sectors to connect with potential employees, and for Tasmanians to see in one place all the opportunities to join our industry. There is short-course training already being rolled out by TasTAFE, along with VXT – our new industry-owned and led tourism and hospitality training organisation. Importantly, VXT training is all about up-skilling Tasmanians quickly and effectively to fill some of the most critical skill gaps, such as cookery, room attendants and front of house. It’s about providing employers with the opportunity to up-skill existing staff to fill some of the most pressing needs in the business, while fast-tracking Tasmanians into the critical employment needs. Finally, you’ll see a marketing and media campaign both within Tasmania and interstate inviting Tasmanians back to our industry or encouraging people to consider our industry for the first time. We need to get on the front foot and tell Tasmanians that despite the uncertainty, there are still amazing opportunities out there right now to join our industry. Our workforce is the backbone of Tasmanian tourism. Like all parts of the visitor economy we’re having to rebuild it from the disruptions of COVID, but out of crisis presents opportunity to attract a new team of Tasmanians into our industry and be a part of the exciting post-COVID era of Tasmanian tourism.

Luke Martin, Chief Executive Tourism Industry Council Tasmania