Tourism is New Zealand's most lucrative industry but conditions and attitudes towards those working in it don't reflect its importance, says Auckland senior lecturer and PhD student David Williamson.
Williamson, head of department for Hospitality at Auckland University of Technology, has completed a PhD on the hotel sector from 1955 to 2000, a period of enormous change and a useful framework from which to view the current state of the industry.
While tourism recently overtook dairy as New Zealand's biggest export earner, Williamson says the hotel industry has long been typified by low wages, casualised contracts, high staff turnover and poor working conditions. It is also highly dependent on migrant workers and work within the sector is often viewed as undesirable due to a perceived lack of opportunities.
"This is problematic as the tourism industry is a huge driver of economic and social wealth in New Zealand," he says. "The labour force really needs to be examined closely and changes made so that conditions and attitudes align with its importance in the economy."
Williamson says there has long been a downward trend in pay rates that continues to be unaddressed: "Pay rates in real value terms fell 24 per cent between 1980 and 2000 [the period of his pay rates research]."