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“Right now the challenge is to ensure we can deliver against the proposition and if you solve the housing issue you solve the industry’s biggest challenge so providing housing is a good proposition for the tourism industry.”

“Many people who work in the industry – hospitality workers, tour guides, cleaning staff – are overwhelmingly young and often temporary workers, and right now tourism businesses have a tough battle attracting them, mainly as these destinations are also the paradise-like hotspots which, since covid, have become quite expensive to live in.

“The reality is that workers and housing affordability are interconnected”. The free market is not interested in providing low-income housing at scale, leaving employers with the option to look at providing that housing themselves or face a continuing struggle to find staff.

While it is an additional burden for business and takes a lot of effort, its building staff accommodation is not a bad investment, and it’s one tourism region. Tourism businesses should band together to undertake a ‘Titans of Industry’ approach.

With workforce challenges across the economy, tourism businesses have to think creatively in looking for ways to attract and keep their workforce, which means investing in solutions to the most significant issue, housing affordability for lower-income workers.

India has a vast number of young people, and a great deal of growth is left in the middle-class population. These visitors will be looking for the kind of holiday proposition we have to offer – we are a super safe, convenient, high-tech destination where everything tends to work. There are few things to cause a nuisance to your experience.

The tourism industry must take the lead in rebuilding its workforce by finding solutions to the country’s housing crisis and providing affordable accommodation options and compelling reasons for employees to stay.

And Australian tourism operators can quit worrying about any post covid hangover, the world has moved on, and Australia, once again, offers an exciting and enticing brand of outdoor adventure, nature and lifestyle.

Mr Kuestenmacher said Australia currently has a migrant skills shortage of more than 270,000 workers and the added pressures of retiring baby boomers and millennials having babies ‘at scale’ during covid.

Australia’s export tourism industry has a strong future with a steady stream of demand from international visitors over the next 50 years; however, Simon says the critical issue is how operators make the most of this growth.

Simon Kuestenmacher, Director & Co-founder of the superior social data analytics advisory service The Demographics Group, will be presenting his views on the way forward to rebuild the industry workforce as a keynote presenter at the ATEC Meeting Place conference in Cairns this week. Over the coming decades, Australian tourism exporters will benefit from a growing middle class looking for travel experiences, particularly younger people from markets such as India and visiting friends and family of new migrants.

“How do you offer a service to meet this demand without workers? That’s the biggest issue for the tourism industry,” Mr Kuestenmacher said.