Tourism job losses snowballing to 13k

A survey of tourism companies found they plan to lay off more than 13,000 workers and desperately wanted longer wage subsidies.

The 547 members of Tourism Industry Aotearoa (TIA) who responded to the survey said they would normally employ 27,536 staff at this time of year, but expected to let almost half go as a result of Covid-19.

If they ceased trading, 6116 fulltime positions would be lost, and three-quarters called for the Government to extend the wage subsidy beyond 12 weeks.

TIA chief executive Chris Roberts said the results backed up estimates more than 100,000 of the 230,000 jobs directly related to tourism could go.

About a third of respondents had mothballed their businesses and 65 per cent had already reduced staff.

‘‘The positive note from the survey is that only eight businesses are intending to shut down permanently, the overwhelming majority are determined to survive and re-emerge.

‘‘The question is how soon can we start refilling those jobs?’’

The economic squeeze exerted by Covid-19 began in February, when New Zealand halted entry of Chinese visitors, the country’s second largest source of visitors after Australia, but since full border closure in late March, the ripples have widened.

Queenstown mayor Jim Boult said the 8400 people who had registered as needing welfare assistance in the resort town probably represented the loss of about 6000 jobs.

The Restaurant Association of New Zealand believes about 10,000.

Air New Zealand has forecast 3750 redundancies over the next year following drastic cuts to international and domestic routes, and Virgin Australia’s departure from New Zealand cost about 600 positions.

The mothballing of Matamata’s Hobbiton and the Te Puia geothermal and cultural centre in Rotorua saw more than 360 workers laid off.

Skyline Enterprises chief executive Geoff Mcdonald said the company, which employs more than 500 in Queenstown and Rotorua, put out a restructuring proposal to staff.

Ngai Tahu Tourism is looking at laying off 300 workers across 13 businesses, and its All Blacks Experience, scheduled to open in Auckland midyear, is also under review.

Wayfare, whose brands include Real Journeys, Cardrona Alpine Resort, Go Orange, and Christchurch’s International Antarctic Centre, has not yet made any permanent staff redundant but acting chief executive Ian Jackson said the impact of the pandemic meant they were planning for that once the wage subsidy ended, and that was echoed by other tourism operators.

Jucy has laid off 51 of the 332 staff running its rental and accommodation businesses in New Zealand, and most of the rest were on reduced hours. ‘‘That the impact on tourism, especially in the short term, will mean that we simply cannot afford to keep on a large majority of our people once the wage subsidy has ended,’’ Jucy chief executive Tim Alpe said.

Skydive company Nzone general manager Clark Scott is expecting redundancies post-subsidy because the most of their customers had been from overseas.

AJ Hackett Bungy New Zealand has retained all 220 crew members, aside from a handful of seasonal workers who were due to leave, but that may not last, managing director Henry van Asch said.

Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis said he was well aware of the issues the industry was facing and had been feeding that information to Cabinet, which would decide how to continue to cushion the blow for all businesses.

‘‘We simply cannot afford to keep on a large majority of our people once the wage subsidy has ended.’’

Timalpe