The Go with Tourism Expo – New Zealand’s only careers expo dedicated to the Tourism & Hospitality industry – has nearly doubled its attendee numbers in 2022 with 28,667 visitors, smashing its previous record of 15,000 in 2021.

This number is the sum of all seven expos held this year.

Two new locations – Palmerston North and Napier – each brought in an unexpected high number of attendees for their one-day events. Additionally, host cities Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin and Hamilton experienced record-breaking numbers this year.

Go with Tourism Programme Director, Heidi Gillingham, says the numbers are encouraging as Tourism & Hospitality industry faces its worst skills shortage ever. “It has been a tiring, but rewarding few weeks given the incredible number of people we’ve been able to reach. Students in particular were really engaged with our activation zones and have been asking great questions about careers in the industry.”

“The biggest surprise from this expo season is that parents have been really receptive to our messaging, which is very promising as they are historically the hardest market to sway when it comes to a career in our industry.”

For the 2022 expo season, Go with Tourism focused heavily on promoting their Tourism Hero campaign, which showcases the stories of people in the industry and the success they’ve had developing their careers.

“You could see the parents’ eyes light up when you tell them about the bartender who became a General Manager of a famous winery within a ten-year period,” says Gillingham. “The expos were a fantastic opportunity to chat with these career influencers directly and clear up misconceptions about Tourism & Hospitality jobs.”

Across all seven events, a total of 52 organisations from the Tourism & Hospitality industry were sponsored to host an exhibition space. Businesses were wide-ranging, most often from the accommodation, education and adventure tourism sectors.

The expos resulted in school applications, registrations for graduate programmes and registered interest in opportunities exhibitors offered.

Since the expo season began on 13 May in Wellington, Go with Tourism has seen a 43 per cent increase of businesses signed up to the Job Connector, a 40 per cent increase in jobs applied for, and 500 per cent increase in registrations through the Pledge A Placement programme.

With the borders now open and the industry in high need of new talent to address incoming tourist demand, Go with Tourism will amp up their workstreams to place jobseekers into Tourism or Hospitality roles.

Written by Helen Shaw, Marketing Communications Manager