Tourism And Hospitality Employees Asked To Share Their Work Experiences

Significant new research from AUT will help to ensure that the voices of people working in tourism and hospitality are heard as part of a process to create better work in the industry.

The New Zealand Tourism and Hospitality Employee Experiences Survey 2022 has been commissioned by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and the results are intended to support the work of the Tourism Industry Transformation Plan (ITP).

“As far as we are aware, this is the largest study of the experiences of tourism and hospitality employees ever to be undertaken in New Zealand,” lead researcher Dr David Williamson says.

“We would like employees to honestly tell us what it is like working in tourism and hospitality – both the good and the bad. This is the chance to have your voices heard and to influence the future of work in these industries.”

Dr Williamson says tourism and hospitality have been major employers and contributors to the economy but have suffered significant disruption due to the Covid pandemic.

A previous survey by AUT, Voices From The Front Line, highlighted problematic and in some cases illegal practices amongst a significant minority of hospitality businesses.

This new survey gives both the opportunity to dig deeper and will also examine the experience of those working in the wider tourism industry.

The research is headed by Dr David Williamson from AUT’s School of Hospitality and Tourism, with Professor Erling Rasmussen from AUT’s New Zealand Work Research Institute.

The ITP is a partnership between the tourism industry, Māori, unions, workers and government to transform tourism and hospitality in Aotearoa towards a more regenerative model.

“We hope that the findings from this research will provide policy and practise insights into the treatment of employees in the New Zealand tourism and hospitality sectors,” Dr Williamson says.

The findings will be available at the following site by the end of 2022.

The New Zealand Tourism and Hospitality Employee Experiences Survey 2022 takes about 20 minutes to complete and will be open through to mid-August.

In the latest Times Higher Education university rankings, AUT ranked first in Australasia for its global research impact.

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