In times of pandemic, which basically means living in and out lockdowns as well as interstate and international border closures, the heavily hit tourism industry has been struggling to manage both high running costs and skilled labour shortage.
Associate Professor Richard Robinson investigated the impact of the pandemic on Queensland’s tourism workforce. The research identified that getting workers is becoming harder due to the uncertainty. Professor Robinson, who is a UQ Business School researcher, conducted 15 consultation workshops with tourism industry operators across five regions: Southern Queensland, Outback Queensland, Tropical North Queensland, Whitsundays, and the Gold Coast.
The last tourism figures showed that while Outback Queensland boomed with a record winter season, Tropical North Queensland had a 48.9% drop in visitors.
The study revealed that key concerns were mainly related to job security, financial hardship, wellbeing, and skilled labour shortages. The most impacted were businesses in marine and Indigenous tourism. Industry operators emphasised that their staff are extremely specialised and believed they might struggle to find qualified staff like diving instructors and boat captains immediately once lockdown ends and travel and holidays resume.
Outsourcing some services and employing contractors would be an efficient solution for some industries to bounce back promptly in these cases. While there is no certainty for tourism operators due to Covid-19, the recommendation is to reboot with minimal costs and exposure. In this case once previous employees could return as contractors or freelancers rather than full-time employees giving both the employee’s and employer’s flexibility.
For employers, managing and running multiple contractors, paying them sporadically and keeping them compliant can be highly challenging. Pendragon Management can effectively manage all your contractors for you minimising your back-office overheads.
We can have a no obligation open discussion on running your contractors payroll and administration so you can focus on restarting your business as soon as possible. We are here to make your life easier, don’t hesitate to talk to us, book an appointment, email us [email protected], or just pick up the phone 02 9407 8700 to talk to one of our specialists.
Learn more:
The new challenge facing the COVID-hit tourism industry
