The tourism and hospitality industries are racing to find ways to attract and retain more staff to cover current and predicted shortages.
An estimated 80,000 new workers would be needed across the two industries over the next five years.
But employers are already finding it incredibly difficult to hire new staff.
The tourism and hospitality industries acknowledged they had their work cut out for them - they get a bad rap for low pay, unfavourable working conditions, and poor perceptions around career prospects.
That was where the Go With Tourism Workforce Wānanga hoped to step in by bringing together businesses, government and union officials, students and educators to find solutions.
More than 100 people attended the two-day virtual event, finishing with a four-team pitch to Tourism Minister Stuart Nash and industry leaders on Thursday.
Team East wanted to take ownership of the problems, creating a central toolkit for information and training along with an industry-wide accord.
White Glove Experiences NZ director Jacqui Wilkinson said the accord acknowledged change was needed.
"This accord is an acknowledgement that yes, things need to change, and it's an agreement that we need to set some professional standards to attract New Zealanders into our sector through better working conditions, a strong duty of care for our people, and an acknowledgement that the mental, physical, social and emotional health of our people should be at the forefront of every business."
Wilkinson said this crisis had been a wake-up call with large and small operators facing workforce challenges.
"There is a genuine desire across sectors - whether you be a one-man-band micro-business or a SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) or a corporation - wanting to see this change happen and actually committing to this.
"Because we're not talking about big financial commitments, and I think that that's the most important piece here is we're not talking large financial contributions, which really would be a key barrier."
Nash said the accord would give workers more confidence.
"I can imagine from someone who is wanting to work in the industry that this could be hugely powerful because they would then know what to expect. They've still got to work really hard, you've still got to start at the bottom and work your way up but the duty of care thing, I think, is really cool."
Tourism Central Otago general manager Dylan Rushbrook did nor think the bad reputation was entirely warranted.
"A perception statement that was shared by a young colleague during this process was her friend said to her and her family: 'How on earth are you going to be able to afford a home when you're being paid minimum wage'. The reality, and this is my reality, was actually by the age of 30, I was earning over $100,000 and I'd had a whole lot of fun getting to that point along the way."
He explained there were different opportunities with their toolkit idea.
"Whilst there's the learning and development component of the toolkit ... there's also some practical applications in there that we didn't discuss. The sharing of information and data being one and if we get the information sharing of data right, we can learn to plan our workforce better and that's going to improve productivity, which will ultimately improve wages along the way as well."
Tourism marketing firm Maverick Digital chief executive Alex Dykman helped to pitch ideas from Team South.
"A career in tourism can be anything you want. We're an industry of tour guides, entrepreneurs, housekeepers, digital marketers, helicopter pilots. The list goes on, and we need to ensure that there is training and upskilling opportunities that are agile, accessible and exciting," she said.
"We propose tourism apprenticeships - learning while you're earning, micro-credentials where you can upskill in various areas across the industry, and paid internships that provide pathways to employment and allow industry to take responsibility for growing and retaining our tourism workforce."
Tourism Industry Transformation Plan co-chair Gráinne Troute had a few ideas to build on Team South's work.
"Maybe operating or having a pilot on an inter-regional level where an apprentice would move between a number of tourism business, gathering different micro-credentials as they went, hopefully building their expertise and staying there.
"I think that would be a way of involving potentially the smaller players as well."
Hospitality NZ regional manager Darelle Jenkins said they needed to work together to attract people into and back to tourism and hospitality.
Tourism education was being done in a fragmented way and they could and needed to do better, she said.
"We want to invest in our people. We will then become less reliant on migrant workers because our people will contribute that service of excellence that we require."
Otago University student Hannah McKeeman was preparing to study for masters after one of her high school teachers inspired her to give tourism a go.
"From my experience, this is why I think it's so important that the key influencers at secondary school, like Mr Gunn, are able to play a key role in changing students perceptions about tourism."
Ziptrek EcoTours executive director Trent Yeo said that was why Team North wants to invite educators to experience tourism, bring the industry into the classroom and rebrand tourism as the experience economy.
"Only by breaking down the barriers between educators and industry can we build the best workforce and if we're going to power the most productive, inclusive and sustainable industry in Aotearoa, we must attract, nurture and value our workforce of the same calibre."
The Events Group general manager Meredith Drucker said Team West focused on addressing retention issues.
"Job sharing was an idea of a way to keep great people within New Zealand rather than them leaving when the seasonality of things kick in."
It also wanted a central resource for businesses to access training, job sharing, mentoring and other essentials
Madison Recruitment managing consultant Kate Godfrey said an unclear career path encouraged workers to look elsewhere.
"Part of what we'd be looking at for this central is to help business owners to identify that clear career path. It doesn't necessarily have to be with your company, we don't want to lose from the industry as a whole."
Go With Tourism programme director Matt Stenton said it was time for action.
"What I'm here to tell you is that we're not going to lose any of this work and we're not going to lose any traction. This wasn't a hui with no do-ee."
Go with Tourism will release a short-term plan for improving the workforce by mid next month with a long term plan expected in January.