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Home / Rotorua Daily Post

Tourism and hospitality lead the way in Rotorua jobs boom

Matthew Martin
By Matthew Martin
Senior reporter, Rotorua Daily Post·Rotorua Daily Post·
31 Oct, 2016 06:00 PM5 mins to read

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Shaquilla Mclean is looking for her first job in the tourism and hospitality industry and is hoping someone will give her that opportunity.

Shaquilla Mclean is looking for her first job in the tourism and hospitality industry and is hoping someone will give her that opportunity.

Job vacancies are on the rise, with Rotorua's hospitality, tourism and retail sectors leading the way ahead of the busy summer season.

But it's not just bar staff, bar managers or sales staff who are in demand, it's the people who back up those industries - transport drivers, accountants and office staff.

New data from job site Seek for the period July 1 to September 30 shows the number of job advertisements up 6.5 per cent in the Bay of Plenty compared with the same period last year.

Seek New Zealand general manager Janet Faulding said the boost to the number of jobs advertised was led by seasonal recruitment across the hospitality, tourism and retail industries.

In the Bay of Plenty, Seek is advertising 623 new jobs with 134 available in Rotorua.

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"Our Seek data has shown that September is the peak hiring month of the year for the hospitality and tourism and retail industries," Mrs Faulding said.

"We know that in September, businesses are gearing up for the festive shopping and summer holiday season.

"They are advertising on Seek now to get the employees they need to service the busy period."

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Talent ID Recruitment director Kellie Hamlett said Rotorua thrived in the summer season and her business was seeing those trends.

Her advice to job seekers was to make sure their CV aligned with the job they were applying for and to check there were no grammatical or spelling errors.

Personnel Resources/Temp Resources Rotorua manager Angelique Scott said her staff were much busier than during the same period last year.

"Our work is not so seasonal or short term, with lots of permanent jobs available. We're being bombarded with Aucklanders and South Africans looking to work here," she said.

Mrs Scott said they had recently been recruiting for people to take on roles in retail as Santa Claus and had found three people, one each in Rotorua, Tauranga and Whakatane.

Rotorua Canopy Tours managing director James Fitzgerald said his company had been looking for about 16 extra staff for the summer season.

"It is more of a seasonal thing, but they can turn it into full-time work if that's want they want," he said.

"Now is the time when we lift staffing massively through summer and the good ones who enjoy it can stay on if they are able to."

He said they were looking for guides, front office and operational staff with about four or five roles left to fill.

"We need to get to about 40 staff to get us through the summer months.

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"Attitude is the number one thing we look for," Mr Fitzgerald said.

But it's not been easy finding the right person to take on the role of bar manager at Eat Streat's Sobar, said the bar's director and manager Jess Bradley.

She said the bar had been looking for a person who could work well in their small team, and with agencies such as the council and police with regard to liquor licensing laws and requirements.

"It's been pretty difficult, especially for us being the newest bar around. We have been looking since April and have had plenty of trial runs, but no one has actually stuck yet."
Tough start in tourism
One person looking to take advantage of the rise in jobs in tourism is Shaquilla Mclean.

She has just graduated from Rotorua's New Zealand School of Tourism and is hoping to get her start in the industry. She just needs someone to take a chance on a young woman with little experience.

She left Opotiki after finishing high school and came to Rotorua hoping to get into the tourism industry.

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"I'd love to travel and see the world. I want to be a flight attendant in the future, but I have to start somewhere.

"I've been turned down by a lot of employers because of my lack of experience."

She said her first job would be important to her.

"It was hard coming from Opotiki because there are no jobs there.

"I want to do really well in tourism and one day want to go back there and start my own tourism business."

She said she had applied for lots of jobs in the last few months and knew there was something out there for her.

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"I'm just looking for that first start in tourism. I love meeting new people, seeing new sights and learning new skills," she said.

Top 10 - industries with the most job advertisements in Bay of Plenty
- Trades and Services. Growth: 48 per cent
- Manufacturing, Transport & Logistics. Growth: 54 per cent
- Healthcare and Medical. Growth: 37 per cent
- Retail and Consumer Products. Growth: 61 per cent
- Administration and Office Support. Growth: 9 per cent
- Sales. Growth: 34 per cent
- Engineering. Growth: 6 per cent
- Construction. Growth: 54 per cent
- Hospitality and Tourism. Growth: 27 per cent
- Accounting. Growth: 12 per cent
* Source: Seek New Zealand. For the period July 1 to September 30 compared to the same period last year

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