Conclusion
Hospitality and tourism are significant parts of the New Zealand economy. Examining the experiences of those working in and across hospitality and tourism is important to determine how the hosts to the world themselves are feeling on a range of employment dimensions.
On this page
As this report highlights, the 2024 Hospitality and Tourism Employment Survey generated results that show the sector is somewhat at a crossroads. Many results show how employers have rebounded to provide rewarding employment experiences. Employees felt a sense of revitalisation overall in their work and workplaces. Overall job satisfaction has increased 5.0% from 2022 to 67.5%.
Of concern is that turnover intention at the job level in the next 12 months has increased. Over half (61.0%) of respondents were either intending to leave their job (31.7%) or were unsure if they would leave (29.3%). A similar picture was found in 2022, with 59.2% of respondents saying they either expected to leave their current job (27.6%) or were unsure about leaving (31.6%).
Of those intending to leave their job in the next 12 months, only 18.3% intended to leave the hospitality and tourism sector altogether in the next 12 months, compared with 33.7% in 2022. Of those wanting to change their job, 51.7% did not want to leave the sector (30.0% were unsure), as compared to 2022, where just 18.9% did not want to leave the sector (with 47.4% unsure).
Work is still required to address pay levels, vitality, and learning at work. While 89.9% of respondents reported that they have the skills to do their jobs with confidence, over half (59.7%) want further training and development.
Key data from the report shows significant improvement across many employment measures compared to 2022. However, there remain ‘pockets’ of concern: young, female, neurodiverse, front-line workers in small hospitality organisations reported the least positive results. There were also key differences between hospitality and tourism employees. Tourism employees reported lower turnover intention, higher wages, greater job satisfaction and lower levels of burnout, bullying, and harassment. The data suggests that larger organisations and tourism businesses provide better working environments compared with smaller hospitality organisations.
If we had a magic wand
Overall, this report provides evidence for further efforts and interventions in some key areas:
- Resources for supporting small organisations to improve conditions and experiences for young employees. As hospitality and tourism work is often the first job for many young workers, policy and resources applied here could make a strong impact.Resources and policy focussed on improving clear job and career progression. Employees were found to have concerns about insufficient training, progression to senior and better-paid roles as their skills increased, and a lack of general support for pursuing pathways to success.
- Concentrating resources into the areas of pay, bullying and harassment, and employment conditions could provide rich dividends in terms of lowering the high rates of turnover intention that drain so many skilled hospitality and tourism workers from the sector.
In closing, we feel it is important to finish with the words of an employee who explains:
As hospitality is one of the few industries left which can’t be overtaken by technology, human intervention to determine a level of service gives a unique advantage for providing a homely experience to our guests. It is also one of the oldest surviving industries with rich cultural influence. Financially it’s a major contributor to the GDP of several nations and employment in individual cities. It also provides a unique experience to understand the psychology of the guests and how people behave.