Executive summary
The tourism industry can offer its employees a positive role in a high wage, low emissions economy giving them resilience in good times and bad.
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However, despite the potential that exists, several systemic challenges affecting the tourism workforce make it difficult for the industry to attract and retain quality employees. We define these as:
- Demand fluctuations
- Pay and conditions
- Firm maturity and scale
- The current and future skills gap
The Better Work Action Plan contains 6 Tirohanga Hou (new outlook or ways of doing things), which are underpinned by specific initiatives to address these challenges. It paves the way towards Better Work for people in the tourism industry. If we offer better experiences in the industry, this will deliver better outcomes for employees, businesses, and visitors.
The 6 Tirohanga Hou are:
- Recognising quality employers and improving employment standards and practices
- Fit-for purpose education and training
- Embrace the flux, enable the flex
- Improving cultural competency and ensuring authentic storytelling
- Lifting technology uptake and innovation to support Better Work
- Showcasing the great – pathways and people in tourism
Together, these form a holistic package of proposals that will bring about positive changes to the tourism industry and lead to a more regenerative and resilient industry of which all New Zealanders can be proud.
A summary of the Tirohanga Hou and initiatives is set out below.
1. Recognising quality employers and improving employment standards and practices
The establishment of a Tourism and Hospitality Accord (Accord) will enable both workers and consumers to identify businesses that meet a set of voluntary standards relating to decent pay, appropriate training and career progression, and a safe and supportive work environment. The Accord aims to ‘lift the middle’ creating a positive movement, leading directly to better work outcomes.
Initiatives
- Initiative 1: Establish a Tourism and Hospitality Accord
Responds to the following key challenges
- Pay and conditions
- Firm maturity and scale
- Current and future skills gap
Creates a future where…
Those who work in tourism are consistently treated well and can easily identify which businesses to work for and where they will find rewarding work. Consumers can choose to support tourism businesses that are treating their people well.
2. Fit-for-purpose education and training
There are a number of priority areas to improve the education and training system and make it more fit for purpose for the current and future tourism industry. A stronger channel of communication between the industry itself and the education ecosystem will support this outcome. These changes will help equip the tourism workforce to meet the demands of a rapidly evolving industry and help deliver a regenerative tourism system.
Initiatives
- Initiative 2: Partnership between industry peak bodies and Ringa Hora
- Initiative 3: Design/develop a new tourism qualification(s)
Responds to the following key challenges
- Pay and conditions
- Current and future skills gap
Creates a future where…
Tourism is recognised as an industry which provides skills for life, where there are many ways to learn in a way that suits employees and employers well. There is an effectively skilled workforce, prepared for the future of tourism.
3. Embrace the flux, enable the flex
Re-framing the tourism industry’s attitude and response to the peaks and troughs of tourism demand (seasons, weeks, and days). Rather than the peaks and troughs being a barrier to attracting and retaining employees, the industry can use peaks and troughs to its advantage to upskill people who work in the industry and provide consistent employment as well as seek to reduce barriers to people holding multiple jobs across the year and across sectors, to support a more stable employment prospect.
Initiatives
- Initiative 4: Conduct a tourism conservation employee-sharing pilot capturing the benefits of the Jobs for Nature (J4N) programme
- Initiative 5: Undertake a systems analysis of barriers to employee-sharing models of work
- Initiative 6: Explore options for clearer long-term immigration settings
Responds to the following key challenges
- Demand fluctuations
- Current and future skills gap
Creates a future where…
Entities within tourism collaborate with each other, and with other industries, to embrace opportunities presented by peaks and troughs of consumer demand. This attracts people to work in the industry who find working across different roles, businesses and industries rewarding, as well as having the opportunity to upskill when demand is low.
4. Improving cultural competency and ensuring authentic storytelling
Improving cultural competency will enable organisations to tell more authentic stories and will build a workplace culture for employees where their cultural values (including Te Ao Māori values) are understood and respected, in order to build more diverse and inclusive workplaces in the longer term.
Initiatives
- Initiative 7: Pilot programme to build cultural competency through regional resources
Responds to the following key challenges
- Pay and conditions
- Current and future skills gap
Creates a future where…
The tourism workforce is regarded as one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most culturally competent workforces, renowned for culturally-appropriate and authentic storytelling.
5. Lifting technology uptake and innovation to support better work
Delivering better work goes hand in hand with a greater value tourism offering, leading to greater productivity. Key to this is innovation and the adoption of technology. There are a range of opportunities to increase adoption of technology across the industry to boost business efficiencies and lead to better work, as well as to stimulate more innovation, for example through innovative business models.
Initiatives
- Initiative 8: Expand Digital Boost tourism and hospitality content
- Initiative 9: Expo to showcase existing and emerging technologies to the tourism industry
- Initiative 10: Encourage more utilisation of business support tools and resources
- Initiative 11: Leveraging accelerators for innovation in tourism
- Initiative 12: Innovation in tourism business models
Responds to the following key challenges
- Pay and conditions
- Firm maturity and scale
Creates a future where…
Businesses develop or make better use of emerging technologies to become less labour intensive, leading to higher productivity and more rewarding work for those in the industry.
6. Showcasing the great – pathways and people in tourism
Initiatives
- Initiative 13: A public campaign to showcase better work
- Initiative 14: Capitalise on the success of Go with Tourism
Responds to the following key challenges
- Current and future skills gap
Creates a future where…
The Aotearoa New Zealand public has a positive perception and appreciation of what the tourism industry contributes, and what a career in tourism can offer.