New Zealand facing tourism manpower crunch

New Zealand’s tourism industry could soon face a shortage of tourism staff, as rising visitor arrivals put pressure on manpower.

A report released by the country’s Tourism Industry Association (TIA) has forecast that New Zealand’s tourism sector could need an extra 36,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) workers by 2025. This would mark an increase of 38% from the 94,100 FTE workers employed in the country today, to approximately 130,000 in 10 years’ time.

These new workers will be needed to cater for a projected 29% increase in international visitor arrivals, which are expected to increase from 2.9 million in 2014 to 3.75m in 2025. Under its ‘Tourism 2025′ strategy, New Zealand is also planning to almost double its total tourism revenues to NZ$41 billion (US$30.1bn) in the coming decade.

And TIA chief executive Chris Roberts said that while the projected growth is “great news for New Zealand”, it also “presents us with challenges”.

Chris Roberts, chief executive of TIA
Chris Roberts, chief executive of TIA
“Some regions will require more workers than others. Regions like Auckland and Otago attract a large proportion of international visitors, driving localised labour demands higher. We are forecasting that tourism labour market needs in Auckland could lift by 54% by 2025 and by 46% in Otago,” Roberts said.

“And as our visitor mix continues to evolve, shifting towards increasing numbers of visitors from the Asian region and China in particular, we expect increased demands for language skills. At the least, most employees will need a solid understanding of the cultures of these new visitors to New Zealand in order to deliver a premium visitor experience.”

TIA said key roles that will need to be filled include “accommodation managers and hospitality workers”, as well as “niche occupations like adventure guides”.

“We have a big challenge ahead, especially as we know that employers in some regions, in particular Queenstown, are already struggling to find enough staff,” Roberts said.

“TIA is working with the tourism industry to develop a… strategy which looks at how to attract more people to work in the tourism industry in the short, medium and long term. This work is progressing well and we expect to launch it publicly later this year,” he concluded.

sourced:traveldailymedia.com