Geelong tourism industry’s summer stress as retailers battle staffing woes

A sample of a survey of more than 100 Geelong employers paints a shocking picture for the region’s retail and hospitality industries coming into the busiest time of year.

Hospitality and tourism industry leaders are searching for solutions as operators face

gaping staffing woes that could impact trade this summer.

According to the Geelong HR Index survey of more than 100 employers, a sample of five from the leisure, tourism and hospitality sector recorded 92 tourism and hospitality workers needed in the coming months.

This was an average of about 18 staff per employer in the sector.

While survey respondents may have been our region’s larger employers, staffing numbers traditionally ballooned in hospitality over the summer months and the region was still falling short on its ability to fill vacancies, Harvest Talent Recruitment and People Solutions, which conducted the The Geelong HR Index, said.

Tourism Greater Geelong and The Bellarine executive director Brett Ince said many operators in Geelong and coastal areas may need to close for days to rest their staff.

Truffleduck’s Deb Nash supports a region-wide talent attraction strategy

Previously when they had been able to have full staff they would have been able to operate seven days a week, he said.

The biggest challenge this sector listed, as with many others, was lack of supply, Harvest said.

Another factor which was more prominent for this sector than others surveyed was the lack of interest in the industry or discipline, Harvest said.

Traditionally, retail and hospitality work was a rite of passage for students and overseas visitors, but Covid years had seen teenagers and young adults opting out of unsavoury work hours and weekend work and many, now the world has opened up, were leaving the country, taking gap years or making the most of an overseas working holiday, Harvest said.

Harvest Talent Recruitment and People Solutions director Maree Herath said this was the time when many in the tourism and hospitality sector ramp up.

“However, without the people to provide the service these traders simply won’t be able to provide full services for holiday makers,” she said.

Harvest noted reliance on international workers had evaporated.

The survey queried the region’s employers on what needed to be done to assist with a region-wide talent attraction strategy and a majority listed accommodation and affordable housing as a gap that needed urgent attention.

Mr Ince said many businesses were looking at enticing mature workers, and also targeting school leavers and encouraging opportunities for backpackers.

“The other side of it is tax policy, how do we look at new opportunities to entice people who might be looking for a second job,” he said.

Deb Nash, business manager at Truffleduck, has voiced support for a region-wide talent attraction strategy.

She said the hospitality sector needed to support each other in attracting talent.

The Geelong HR Breakfast, hosted by Harvest at Truffleduck, on Wednesday will report further trends from the 2022 Geelong HR Index.

Tickets are available online.

Events program project snares $3.4m boom

A state-funded business events attraction program has enticed 54 events to Geelong and the Great Ocean Road, estimated to bring a combined economic benefit of $3.4m to the regions.

Business events secured through the program are scheduled up until late 2023, with 36 in Geelong and The Bellarine and 18 along the Great Ocean Road.

Established in 2021 in response to Covid-19 challenges impacting the sector, the program has assisted conference and meeting planners to get back to holding in-person events and building confidence to meet again.

The program is delivered through a partnership between Business Events Geelong, which is a division of Tourism Greater Geelong and The Bellarine; Great Ocean Road Regional Tourism; and Regional Development Victoria.

As part of the program, events deemed to be suitable and beneficial to the region were offered a $50 incentive per delegate to host their event in Geelong and The Bellarine or the Great Ocean Road.

It has also supported regional tourism operators to connect with complementary businesses in the region, to collaborate, and learn new ways of approaching challenges.

The state government invested $400,000 through its $10m Regional Recovery Fund to establish the program to reinvigorate business events in the Barwon South-West region.

General manager of Great Ocean Road Regional Tourism, Liz Price, said the uptake of funding represented that, especially for the business events sector, there was strong demand now for regional in-person activity.

Originally published as Geelong tourism industry’s summer stress as retailers battle staffing woes