Forty percent of resort’s hotel workforce may be gone by February
Unless urgent changes are made to New Zealand’s controversial accredited employer work visa (AEWV), Queenstown is facing losing almost 1000 hotel workers in the next seven months.
Earlier this month, the Queenstown Business Chamber of Commerce met Immigration Minister Erica Stanford to raise some of their concerns over changes to the visa, and propose some solutions.
Part of their presentation included a report focused just on Queenstown’s hotel sector.
Chamber board member Jo Finnigan says that report doesn’t capture the wider sector — including motels, luxury lodges and Airbnbs, for example.
Forty local hotels participated in a survey which formed the basis of the report, indicating about 2300 people are presently employed in the sector — just 20% of those are Kiwis or Aussies.
Half of them are on short-term constrained visas and 30% are on the AEWV.
Of the sponsored workforce employed by the sector, almost 40% will be faced with leaving NZ between September and February when their AEWVs expire.
And while 60% of those visa holders will be eligible for a one-year extension, 35% of responding businesses have indicated they won’t be in a position to support them.
‘Buoyant but fickle’: Queenstown Business Chamber of Commerce board member Jo Finnigan
Finnigan says that’s because there’s a ‘‘hospitality wage rate’’, less than the median wage, in place for certain hospo roles.
For a worker to secure a one-year extension, they have to be paid the median.
‘‘So all of a sudden, the one or two people we want to secure an extension for [in a hotel] have to be paid a whole lot more than they were previously above, really, where their actual role sits in terms of what they are doing.’’
She notes that’d have a knock-on effect, because then the rest of the workforce also has to be paid more, which becomes unaffordable, ‘‘especially in this market’’.
‘‘[It] is buoyant, but it’s also fickle.
‘‘Not everyone’s doing well all of the time — we can’t shift that far, that fast, so that’s where that inability to provide the extension is.’’
Potential $62m economic loss in hotels alone
The report focuses, in part, on Queenstown hotel group’s 700 housekeepers, as a case study.
Between September, 2023 and this past February, the resort sold about 4045 rooms a night — an 80.9% occupancy — and housekeepers cleaned an average of 5.75 of them per day, totalling 732,145 for the period.
Predictions are, for the corresponding period this year, about 5726 rooms a night will be occupied.
However, 25% of those housekeepers — 174 people — will have their visas expire during the same period.
‘‘Without a full replacement [of housekeepers], occupancy of just 61% is feasible, representing a potential loss of $62 million in rooms alone, or $9m in GST,’’ the report presented to Stanford says.
‘‘It’ll also affect all other departments in hotels — including food and beverage (including chefs) front office and spas.
‘‘We are most highly concerned for the quality risk to our tourism reputation, but also the affordability of our lower-skilled roles.’’
Pushing for “bespoke” arrangements
Queenstown mayor Glyn Lewers says it’s an example of why the government has to start looking at ‘‘levers’’ across all portfolios including, for example, transport and infrastructure.
‘‘All these feed in to a growing economy and maintaining a visitor economy for Queenstown that ultimately gives a fair bit of GST back to central government.
‘‘I do know this government knows Queenstown Lakes is completely different to, let’s say, the rest of NZ when it comes to the economic drivers here.
‘‘But we also punch well above our weight when it comes to providing a tax take to the government.’’
He believes serious consideration needs to be given to bespoke arrangements for destinations like the Queenstown Lakes across multiple sectors, including health, education, infrastructure and transport, because each one ‘‘drives and maintains the visitor economy’’, and ‘‘community acceptance’’ of tourism.
Chamber CEO Sharon Fifield says they are continuing to push for regional settings relating to immigration and believes Stanford understands the resort’s ‘‘a little bit different’’.
While Stanford’s working on a report to Cabinet, due to be presented in September before it goes out for consultation, Fifield says that’s ‘‘a little bit too late’’ to lessen the blow of the impending employment cliff Queenstown faces, across all sectors.
‘‘We’re coming out of winter [by then], we’re gearing up for summer, we can’t be in this situation.
‘‘She really understands that and I would hope we have some improvements to the system, or some assurances, before September — or even fixes to the current system.’’
