The Restaurant Association of New Zealand has been meeting with regional Mayoral candidates in the race, keen to gauge their agenda.
“A lot has changed over the past three years, and we have wanted to know what the next Mayor sees as the biggest priorities for their region, and importantly, how this feeds in to support our own hospitality industry and our businesses,” said CEO, Marisa Bidois.
“For us, the single most important issue for the Restaurant Association is how the Council will be involved in continuing to help support the hospitality sector’s recovery as we build back up to full capacity.”
Restaurant Association’s 5 key priorities for Council:
- Listen to industry and ensure we have a seat at the table
The pandemic has assisted to further grow relationships with many Government and local Government representatives and departments as in most cases we’ve shared a common goal to assist businesses get back on their feet and to someday thrive again.
With a new team coming in to run the Council we need to ensure we continue to have a seat at the table with local Government when decisions are being made that impact our businesses. The Association is an important conduit for Councils in their engagement with business owners, so how will they work with the industry?
The Council needs to be well-informed on the day-to-day realities for our industry and move on from pre-determined perspectives - be invested to take our viewpoints on board. We are seeking opportunities for information to be delivered directly from industry to Council, to encourage initiatives that work in partnership between local Government and business.
- Initiatives that support hospitality and tourism and bring more activity / events to the regions
Customer hesitancy has played a significant part in the delay to our sector’s recovery from the pandemic. While customer hesitancy challenges have abated now, a new wave of infection, or changes to the Covid response will again renew these customer challenges. In addition, over Covid there have been changes, some permanent, to dining habits and this has had a particular impact on our city centre-based members. A vibrant hospitality sector is critical to any regions appeal as we welcome back tourists and activity that supports this should be key for any Council’s strategy over the next few years.
Our members across the country have ranked regionally led “dine out” campaigns as one of the most impactful initiatives that Councils can do to support their businesses. These could take many forms: from culinary festivals to marketing campaigns, to proactive encouragement to dining out with Council-supported voucher schemes. We are keen to put these firmly on the new Council’s radar and be involved in the development of activity to support a thriving industry and economy.
Integrated with this strategy is the willingness for continuing to develop a regional food story for our regions and we need to ensure that this something that our new Mayor and Councils will support going forward. Targeted investment into telling these community stories will broaden the tourist experience and support the unique nature of manaakitanga in Aotearoa.
- Safety and crime
The rise in crime aimed at businesses with storefronts, including ramraids on retail and hospitality, fights in nightclubs and brazen shoplifting is of increasing concern. Many central city areas also have significant safety issues, and we see this as a key priority for the country.
Hospitality establishments are vulnerable to robbery, often outside of opening hours when there are less people around. Staff may be working alone or in small numbers and establishments have some items of great value, including cash, alcohol, and food on the premise. So, more needs to be done to address the safety issues for our types of businesses and for our customers.
- Infrastructure upgrades and business interruption
Over the past 3 years we have seen many members businesses significantly impacted by long-term infrastructure updates. These upgrades aim to have a positive effect in the future but as they drag on the impacts can be severely detrimental to business. Some members have lost their livelihoods resulting in permanent closure of their businesses, such has been the detrimental impact.
Often the Council response in these situations has been far from adequate. We want any incoming Council to be committed to ensure less business interruption due to infrastructure upgrades. In our view those businesses significantly affected by Council-led infrastructure upgrades should be able to access financial support from Council for prolonged business interruption.
- Council services / fee Deferrals
Through the pandemic many Councils implemented some measures around fee deferrals for various licensing fees which provided some support for hospitality businesses suffering because of the impacts of Covid. These moves were appreciated and provided some peace of mind for our struggling small business owners. As we are still facing accumulated debt and uncertain future impacts as the pandemic continues, we recommend a commitment to extending these initiatives should we have further outbreaks or impacts.
This year we have also been talking with existing Council representatives around how they can support recognition for employers that are meeting the highest levels of business management, as an example those that have been accredited through the industry employer accreditation scheme, Hospo Cred. Those meeting the requirements of achieving this accreditation, or some other employer recognition programme, should be eligible to receive some recognition from Council for meeting these ‘good employer’ criteria in the form of streamlined application processes for various Council licences, or discounted fee structures.
“Our five key incoming Council priorities set the measures to best support the recovery of our sector and ensure local government policy matches the realities of everyday hospitality operations,” concluded Bidois.
“We welcome the opportunity to work with local Government representatives to work with us to create a concise pathway for rebuilding and repositioning the sector for the future.”
