18 February 2025
Hon. Louise Upston
Minister for Tourism and Hospitality
Parliament Buildings
Wellington
l.upston@ministers.govt.nz
Tēnā koe Minister Upston,
Congratulations and welcome to the Tourism and Hospitality portfolio
On behalf of the Restaurant Association of New Zealand, I want to express our gratitude for meeting with us on day one of your tenure as Minister for Tourism and Hospitality. I have already had feedback from our members who shared how impressed they were by your commitment to engaging with the hospitality sector so soon into taking on this role, and I look forward to meeting with you again soon.
With that in mind, I am writing to invite you to Ignite Hospo 2025, our new-look hospitality conference, and to share with you some information about our industry advisory groups, as well as how we intersect with your Social Development and Employment portfolio.
Ignite Hospo 2025
Ignite Hospo is the new format for our annual hospitality conference. This immersive event will go beyond the traditional conference format and off er intimate workshops that provoke thought and discussion through discovery, exploration, and debate of both new and time-tested business strategies and concepts.
As Minister for Tourism and Hospitality, we would like to invite you to be a keynote speaker at Ignite, which will take place on Monday 19 May at the Hyundai Marine Sports Centre, 8/10 Tamaki Drive, Okahu Bay, Auckland.
With the 2025 budget being delivered on Thursday 22 May, should you wish to use this occasion to make a pre-budget announcement of any hospitality-specific investments in Budget 2025, we would be more than happy to support and facilitate this with your off ice.
Industry Advisory Groups
To better consider the issues, initiatives and future skills needed across the hospitality industry, the Restaurant Association has established five industry advisory groups to facilitate regular dialogue about hospitality needs that builds more cohesive, coordinated insights and support greater decision-making.
The groups are:
- Immigration and Employment Relations Industry Advisory Group
- Economic Development Industry Advisory Group
- Sustainability and Environmental Practise Industry Advisory Group
- Training and Development Skills Industry Advisory Group Page 1 of 2
- Rangatahi Advisory Group
These groups meet quarterly in a think tank-style online meeting to discuss issues, ideas and initiatives to support the growth and development of the hospitality industry. Should you or your colleagues ever wish to meet with one of these groups, or engage in targeted consultation on specific topics, we would welcome the opportunity to coordinate such engagement as we have done in the past with the Commerce Commission.
Intersection with your other portfolios
In partnership with the Ministry of Social Development, our HospoStart programme introduces jobseekers to the basics of hospitality. They graduate with a great attitude, core skills and ready for a career in hospitality.
We train job-seekers over four weeks to ready them for work (or get them back into work) in hospitality, with an overall goal of employment upon completion. The training provided by the Restaurant Association is employer driven and has been created in consultation with the hospitality industry.
Participants gain valuable insight into a career in hospitality and key skills for entering employment and further education in our industry. We designed this course to reflect the key skill set required for job seekers – it is practical and hands on learning.
Upon completion we actively help to recruit the graduates into employment and our programme will continue in the form of pastoral care and mentorship in the first 3 months of their employment. Since its establishment in 2017, more than 900 people have passed through the programme and onto the hospitality industry.
Bringing the Michelin Guide to New Zealand
Finally, I understand you have requested a briefing on Michelin, and we were happy to provide what information we had available to your off icials to support this. If there is anything we can do to assist you in this work, please let us know — we are very excited by this opportunity, and have a number of members who have trained in Michelin-starred venues and received Michelin stars themselves who I’m sure would welcome the opportunity to help with bringing Michelin to New Zealand.
I hope you have found this briefing useful, and I look forward to working with you to grow the value of hospitality in New Zealand. Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of any assistance in your role.
Ngā mihi nui,
Marisa Bidois
Chief Executive
Restaurant Association of New Zealand