Business View Oceania - Oct 2023

17 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA VOLUME 5, ISSUE 10 growth of businesses. But while Sunday brunches, evening dinners, a few quiet drinks with friends, and a weekend away are, to all appearances, back and humming, all is still not quite right. The notices on the front doors are the clue. The reduced opening days, the shorter hours, the slower service, and the later check-in times point to an industry under severe pressure for staff, skilled or otherwise. Though we can relieve some of that pressure in the short term by relying on migrant workers, it’s what this means in the longer term as international tourism climbs back as the world sees we are finally open for business, and irritants such as the 7-day Covid stand-down for visitors are ditched. It’s hard to overstate the impact of Covid on the sector, and the Tourism Satellite Account from Stats NZ shows it clearly. In 2019, food and beverage and accommodation services contributed a whopping $8 billion to the national economy. But by last year, that had plunged by 46 per cent to $4.3 billion. That is a massive hit in anyone’s language. The border closures, lockdowns, ongoing cost pressures, and restricted disposable income all had an impact. But while those and the lockdowns meant customers were few and far between for many businesses for long periods, over the long term the prevalent issue was – and is – access to workforce. Average staffing nationwide fell off a cliff after 2020, and it has basically stayed there. Some of this, of course, can be put down to HOSP I TAL I TY NEW ZEALAND INCORPORATED