New Learning Platform Grow Tourism Launches, Aims To Transform Workforce Development

A first-of-its-kind learning platform dedicated to building the best-practice skills and knowledge needed to fuel a higher-value tourism and hospitality industry launches today.

Grow Tourism is a flexible, modular online platform delivering workforce capability centred around five key pillars of high-value tourism and hospitality businesses.

The brainchild of Alex Dykman and Tash McGill, Grow Tourism has been designed to empower business owners, organisations and destinations to embrace modern and engaging professional development for their teams and members.

Owner of iFLY Queenstown and Grow Tourism Advisory Board member Matt Wong emphasises the link between high-performing people and high-performing businesses.

“If you want an optimal, high-performance tourism or hospitality business – that means you need optimal, high-performance individuals. The Grow Tourism platform empowers our industry to invest in our people in a meaningful, accessible way,” he says.

From today, industry and the public are invited to experience Grow Tourism for free and explore the platform’s two Freemium modules. April also marks the onboarding of Grow Tourism’s Beta partners, which includes Sudima Hotels. The full platform with its initial 25-module curriculum is available to subscribers from June 2023.

Each learning module focuses on a specific topic within the five pillars of high-value tourism and hospitality businesses and are built around a real-world case study. Learning concepts are delivered through the lens of well-known businesses like AJ Hackett Bungy, Rotorua Canopy Tours and Hobbiton Movie Set – which is where the magic happens, says co-Founder Alex Dykman.

“Workforce capability lies at the heart of a brighter tourism and hospitality future. And the learning itself needs to be high-impact, flexible and based on the real-world. It’s the case studies that drive real engagement – users get to learn about topics like sustainability storytelling with Rotorua Canopy Tours, or delivering outstanding customer experiences through the lens of AJ Hackett Bungy.”

Modules stack together to achieve industry-endorsed credentials that recognise the learning and development that has been completed. Modules are also fully customisable, allowing a high level of flexibility when it comes to onboarding or delivering specific learning topics.

“A need for flexibility was something that came through strongly during our chats with industry,” says co-Founder Tash McGill.

“Businesses and organisations have the option to create custom modules for their learners, which sit alongside the initial core 25-module curriculum. It’s perfect for destination-specific learning like ambassador programs, or for topics that are highly unique to a business.”

Chair of Business Events Industry Aotearoa and former GM – Destination of Tātaki Auckland Unlimited Steve Armitage says accessible and relevant professional development like the Grow Tourism platform is one of the solutions needed to overcoming workforce challenges.

“We need to attract back the people tourism has lost over the last three years, while at the same time build a pipeline of new talent. Initiatives like Grow Tourism deliver the meaningful learning and upskilling our industry needs to become an employer of choice and deliver quality visitor experiences,” he says.

Grow Tourism has been designed to work in collaboration with ongoing industry initiatives like the Tourism Industry Transformation Plans, Destination Management Plans and the work being undertaken by the industry’s Workforce Development Council, Ringa Hora.

“What we’ve created is a flexible and strategic tool to fuel workforce development in a way that drives sustainable, high-impact results,” says Dykman.

“We see a world where the visitor economy is equipped to serve the traveller of the future with high-value tourism and hospitality experiences. Grow Tourism is helping to bring this to life.”

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