A postcard from New Zealand

The New Zealand tourism and hospitality sector is growing fast. But with new visa restrictions in place, operators face similar challenges as their counterparts in the UK. David Green MIH reports

New Zealand has come a long way since I arrived here in 1987 coming from a career with Queens Moat Hotels and Bass & Welsh Brewers following completion of my HCIMA at South Devon.

When I first arrived most of the industry was run by expat Germans, Swiss and English. There was little training in hotel management, with not even a degree available in hospitality. The largest hotel company was the Southern Pacific Hotel Corporation which owned or managed the majority of properties in New Zealand.

On arriving as a food & beverage manager I made the regrettable mistake of opening a boutique beer bar in the lobby of the Auckland Parkroyal, thinking it was surely an up-and-coming trend. I managed to source six local crafted ales, but after two months of continuous requests for Lion Red I gave up and turned it into a wine bar – it was the 1980s, after all.

Now we have a strong reputation, not only for our clean green spaces ( as depicted in The Lord of the Rings film),but for world-class cuisine, wine and service. Our famous Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc has been at the forefront, but there is so much more. Our Syrah is just starting to be recognised as on a par with the best, and of course you can’t go past an Otago or Martinborough Pinot Noir for quality when compared with Burgundy.

We now have a wealth of artisan producers across the country and can boast of restaurants like the French Café, that regularly make it onto global listings. We are also able to point to growing regional culinary styles, driven by the diversity of produce available and the very talented chefs that take the best of the South Pacific and apply their own vision to their menus. Training is also taken seriously with many Degree or Masters programmes available in Hospitality and Culinary Arts, as well as excellent on-the-ground service training. New Zealand has its own relaxed style of service, but it’s now at a very professional level.

One of the real coming-of-age stories has to be the New Zealand International Convention centre, soon to be completed in Auckland. This will be able to cater to 4,000 delegates and finally puts us on the map as a serious player in the international convention market. Of course this has generated its own set of problems. Auckland has been growing rapidly in the past ten years and there is a serious under-supply of accommodation.  Even with  six new hotels currently being built, one full conference will leave only 2,000 beds available in the Auckland central business district. A recent Government report has recommended that New Zealand needs 26 extra hotels over the next ten years, in addition to those currently under construction.

All this puts tourism and hospitality firmly at the top of the list as New Zealand’s largest export earner, employing 7.5% or our workforce. This brings other challenges, such as finding enough trained staff to employ, especially since the Government has recently applied a $49,000 threshold on work visas which effectively cuts out anyone below Maitre’D or Sous Chef from gaining legitimate employment.

But New Zealand is a fantastic place to live, work and visit and I would invite any of my industry colleagues to make the trip to come and see for yourself that we actually have a lot more than just sheep or rugby. Oh and the Americas Cup!

Any of my old colleagues from South Devon College or the industry can contact me on david.green@aut.ac.nz

David Green MIH is the director of AUT Hospitality Services