- Global Work & Travel matches businesses with WHMs at no cost
- World leading youth travel brand says demand for NZ is high
- Backs calls for NZ border to open sooner for international tourists
One of the world’s leading and largest e-commerce youth work and travel companies has called on New Zealand hospitality businesses struggling with staff shortages to get in touch and start setting up interviews with working holiday makers ahead of the reopening of international borders.
Global Work & Travel provides a service, currently at no charge, to employers looking for workers by matching them with working holiday makers from around the world who book their travel through the company.
They ensure that jobseekers have all relevant visas, police checks, professional CVs and references before setting up the interview between the two parties.
This service is being offered at no charge for a limited time to help impacted hospitality and tourism businesses.
Travellers have begun arriving in Australia since it was announced they were allowed to enter Australia on a working holiday visa from December. Global’s CEO Jürgen Himmelmann says New Zealand businesses should be aware that travellers need at least several months to organise themselves ahead of an overseas move.
“There’s been so much pent up demand from travellers wanting to go to New Zealand and the announcement by the government of their five step plan to reopen borders has created a major spike in enquiries,” Mr Himmelmann said.
“A major part of our business is matching incoming travellers with employers by setting up interviews, especially in tourism and hospitality, and the demand for these workers is at unprecedented levels,” Mr Himmelmann said.
“We’ve been getting more than 1.5 million site visitors a month for working holiday travellers across our network since that major announcement, with New Zealand high in those numbers.
“We have working holiday makers who are keen and ready to go to New Zealand.”
The Australia-based Global Work & Travel has international offices in London and Vancouver and is regarded as an industry leader in youth and meaningful travel. The company helps match working holiday makers into jobs in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, USA, the UK and Ireland, plus more.
Meanwhile, Global has backed calls from major tourism industry bodies for the New Zealand Government to bring forward its planned dates for the opening of international borders to tourists to provide a boost to the sector and the wider economy.
Mr Himmelmann said that while it was positive that New Zealand’s five step reopening plan was announced, it “made no sense” to keep the border closed to international tourists until October.
“The tourism sector in New Zealand has been closed to international tourists for just under two years now and has been decimated, while much of the rest of the world has been allowing overseas visitors back in,” Mr Himmelmann said.
“The five step reopening plan at least gives us a timeline but that final step regarding international tourists, which is scheduled for October, should be brought forward by several months at least as a matter of urgency,” he said.
“The reality is that the Omicron variant is now out in the New Zealand community, so what’s the point in keeping the borders closed? It makes no sense.
“Tourism businesses have already gone under and many have only just managed to hang on and are on the brink of collapse.”
Tourism Industry Aotearoa (TIA) in December revealed the full impact of the pandemic on the tourism industry with statistics that show the sector lost 72,285 workers including 6,738 or 25 percent of tourism’s owner-operators.
The closed border has also created chronic labour shortages in New Zealand, especially in tourism and hospitality and agriculture and farming where it’s been reported that 24,000 workers are needed for the 2022 kiwifruit harvest alone.
As a result, the New Zealand government has faced growing calls to remove border restrictions after the highly infectious Omicron was detected in the community last month.
Peak industry bodies including TIA have pointed out that the previous pandemic plan was developed to respond to Delta, not Omicron. They reasoned that if Omicron becomes endemic in New Zealand, there will be no health reason to keep our borders closed or to continue self-isolation or MIQ for international arrivals.
Ministry of Health figures confirm there were 1,588 new cases recorded on Wednesday with 8,147 active cases in the community in the past 21 days. (https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-data-and-statistics/covid-19-current-cases)
Mr Himmelmann pointed to the fact that other countries are opening up to overseas tourists. In the past few weeks, the UK has taken all restrictions off for all countries while eliminating testing, while Norway swung open its borders for the first time since early 2020.
“For example, Canada has been open to international tourists for six months now and, because of this, we’ve actually been rebooking working holiday makers who’ve wanted to go to New Zealand, and getting them over to jobs in Canada instead,” he said.
“Canada has been allowing working holiday makers in for most of the pandemic, as long as they had work permits. Tourists may have initially been prevented from entering, but the working holiday makers turned their attention to Canada instead.
“The reality is that New Zealand is competing with the likes of Canada and Australia to attract working holiday makers to help fill the tens of thousands of unfilled jobs in New Zealand. They’ll be instrumental in filling chronic labour shortages.
“In the UK, restrictions have been lifted for all incoming visitors and they won’t be requiring people arriving to test.
“This is all too late for the many tourism and hospitality businesses that have hit the wall during the border closures, but common sense surrounding the opening of the borders will save more operations from going under, which obviously results in job losses.
“It’s time to get things moving forward and help these small businesses get back on their feet again.”
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