Current state of the tourism workforce
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Industry snapshot
| Age | 45% of employees that work in tourism are under the age of 34. [1] |
| Gender | 54% of employees in the tourism industry are female [1], and the number of women employed in tourism-related industries dropped by 8% in 2020 compared to 2019, while the percentage of men in the industry increased slightly. [2] |
| Māori workforce | 15% of people working in the industry identify as Māori. [1] |
| Employees | 146,295 people were employed in tourism in the year-ended 2021. [3] |
| Migrant workforce | |
| Earnings | $6.18 was the estimated hourly income gap between tourism pay rates and the Aotearoa New Zealand median in the June 2021 quarter. The estimated tourism industry median hourly income is $21.5811 [1], compared to $27.76 for pay rates across New Zealand. (StatsNZ) |
The numbers in this table are estimates. Please refer to Appendix 1 for a description and caveats relating to these estimates.
The impacts of the global pandemic have significantly affected Aotearoa New Zealand’s tourism industry and these definitions may no longer reflect the tourism industry accurately. We advise interpreting these figures with caution.
Footnotes
1. Estimate created using data sourced from Stats NZ, Household Labour Force Survey (June 2021) and tourism product ratios from the Tourism Satellite Account (2021).
2. Stats NZ, Fewer women working in tourism industries. https://www.stats.govt.nz/news/fewer-women-working-in-tourism-industries(external link).
3. Tourism Satellite Account, year ending March 2021 https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/tourism-satellite-account-year-ended-march-2021(external link).
4. Individuals are not counted as a migrant if they have a New Zealand passport or have had a residence visa for five or more years.
5. Estimate created using data sourced from MBIE, Migration Data Explorer https://mbienz.shinyapps.io/migration_data_explorer/(external link) and tourism product ratios from the Tourism Satellite Account (2021).