High skill levels in Services, and particularly tourism, are vital if New Zealand’s economy is to recover quickly from the Covid 19 hangover, Ringa Hora Councillor Loren Aberhart says.
As Destination and Attraction General Manager for Christchurch, Loren has played a major role in boosting tourism in the Garden City and she is in no doubt that tourism will be key to getting things moving in New Zealand as a whole.
“Our government has indicated they want to double New Zealand’s exports within 10 years. The only way New Zealand can do that is by increasing some of its industries on a large scale,” she says.
“The only industry you can increase at scale quickly is international inbound tourism – which has a second benefit as the only export sector the government earns GST on.
“So for our economy to grow, they require a highly skilled services workforce.”
Loren grew up in Nelson and her career has since taken her around the country: first in Nelson and then in Wellington with the World of Wearable Art, then returning to the top of the South Island to Nelson Tasman Tourism before heading to Auckland to work on tourism promotion for Ngati Whatua o Orakei and then Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED).
In 2018 she headed to her current job, driven by the opportunity to be part of reshaping a city still recovering from the devastating 2011 earthquake.
“We did quite a lot of research around what people thought of Christchurch, and basically their perception were three words: broken, boring, and conservative,” she says.
Six years later, some hard work in the city, and some skilful marketing, has turned it into one of the fastest-growing tourism markets in New Zealand.
“We frame ourselves as a new city now rather than a post-quake city, the newest city in the world,” she says.
“What we’re seeing is that we’ve recaptured market share significantly from international visitors, but also our domestic visitors. We’ve doubled our domestic visitor numbers and spend pre-Covid, which no-one else in the country has done.
“We have worked really hard at repositioning Christchurch, and the keywords we’re getting now are exciting, new, different, rejuvenated and beautiful.”
Loren’s passion for marketing and tourism not only took her to interesting workplaces, it drove her to give back to the sector as a whole. She co-founded the Young Tourism Export Council of New Zealand, a group aimed at developing future leaders, and has been on the board of the New Zealand Events Association for five years, the last three as chair.
It was this background which brought her into the Ringa Hora Council, where her experiences have enabled her to bring some different perspectives.
“Firstly, I’ll cheekily say age or youth, as one of the young members of the council. But secondly, and probably more importantly, I bring a regional view, working as a South Island representative.
“The needs of small, regional New Zealand are quite different and some of those barriers are really basic. Sometimes it’s accommodation, sometimes it’s access to reliable internet and phone service, sometimes it’s the fact that snow closed the road for two weeks of the year.
“Where Ringa Hora can add additional opportunity or can add support is by looking at ways to do credentials that are accessible from various locations, so it makes it easier, for example, if you live in Mount Cook village in a snowstorm to keep studying.”
During her time on the council, Ringa Hora’s connections with industry and workplaces have become deeper and stronger, and it’s these contacts which Loren is most proud of.
“Vocational education was an incredibly complex environment that was not well understood, most particularly by industry, and so the interface with the future of work needs by industry was getting lost,” she says.
“I’m most proud of Ringa Hora for their really tight connection to industry and bringing industry voice into training needs, and the learner voice back to industry as well.”
