This weekend wrapped up the Young Enterprise ‘Entrepreneurs in Action’ (EIA) business competition, which saw 80 secondary school students tackle a real-life tourism industry challenge, delivered by Go with Tourism.

We set the scene of an industry facing a large skills shortage upon its rebuild and perceptions of tourism careers at an all-time low, then asked the students: “How can we encourage the youth of New Zealand to consider tourism as a career?”

The winning team, hosted by Air New Zealand, suggested the following in their business pitch:

• A secondary school education programme called “Hāpai”
• Government-funded internships into tourism jobs
• Make Tourism an Achievement Standards subject

Go with Tourism Programme Director, Matt Stenton, says that he and his team were genuinely excited to hear the ideas from the students – a target audience – to see if anything could realistically be implemented. "The Hāpai idea from the winning team is similar to the education programme we launched just two months ago, and their plea to the Government to transform Tourism into an Achievement Standards subject in schools was fantastic to hear, as we also believe that this needs to happen to change the stigma that surrounds Tourism careers.

“Overall, it was fascinating to hear that our youth feel that there is not enough accurate information being given to secondary school students about Tourism and the pitches gave our team a great sense of reassurance that we are in tune with our student market and are moving in the right direction.”

Additionally, Go with Tourism hopes to work with some of the students in the competition further on their ideas and provide them with real-life work experience.

2020 was the first ever dual-city event for the EIA Challenge. Go with Tourism hosted 20 of the YES students in their office at GridAKL in Auckland, who were unable to travel to the event in Wellington due to the restrictions with Levels 2 and 2.5 in the respective regions.

To ensure all Government guidelines were followed, Go with Tourism split the event space into four quadrants, each with its own dedicated entrance to make sure teams would not cross over into the space of another team. In addition, each team were assigned their own bathroom and food was served to their table.

All pitches for the EIA Challenge can be viewed here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrhWzMXFNTg&feature=youtu.be

Written by Helen Shaw, Marketing Communications Manager