Tourism and Hospitality Minister Matt Doocey speaking at the HNZ24 conference. Photo: RNZ / Adam Burns
The tourism and hospitality minister is "challenging" businesses to think of the welfare of hospitality staff following reports of bullying from its workforce.
The remarks came during a speech to open Hospitality New Zealand's two-day HNZ24 conference at Christchurch's Te Pae Convention Centre on Tuesday.
Hundreds of operators from both the accommodation and hospitality sectors were in attendance.
Tourism and Hospitality Minister Matt Doocey said the government wanted to help create the settings for the industry to thrive.
However, Doocey - who also holds the first mental heath portfolio - took the opportunity to alert businesses of problems within the sector, including bullying in the workplace.
An industry survey showed nearly 34 percent of participants had witnessed bullying in the workplace in the last two years.
"When you look at some of the surveys in hospitality, it's not that good," Doocey said.
"We all know from our upbringing in the sector that it wasn't that long ago, where the chefs would be throwing the plates around and the curses out to the servery to the wait stuff.
"That's part of the history of the sector and there's no denying that."
But the minister argued operators needed to consider what mental health support they offered to help secure more numbers into its workforce.
"You have a young generation now, hugely articulate in mental health, they know what they want," he said.
"They turn up to jobs and they ask questions like 'what are you going to do about my wellbeing?'"
Earlier this year, Hospitality New Zealand outlined an "ambitious" five-year industry strategy, including how to ensure more resilience and plans to attract more talent into the sector.
Addressing mental health and wellbeing within the sector was also a key focus of the strategy.
Doocey said the coalition had established an "ambitious" target for Tourism New Zealand to grow its exports by $5 billion over the next four years.
"If we can support the growth in those periods, ultimately that will support growth in tourism as well."