Ms Upston, who is also the Minister for Social Development, was in Dunedin to talk to local employers about various job schemes to get people off the Jobseeker Benefit and into work.
Ms Upston said from a tourism perspective, Dunedin was doing pretty well.
‘‘I think it was 6% increase in visitor nights over a year now, which is really encouraging. Also, in terms of the port numbers and the cruise visitors, those numbers have been going really strong.
‘‘The tourism organisations that I’ve met with earlier today were looking at how does the region work together with the Southern Way [national tourism strategy] to make sure that we are sharing the visitors around.’’
As Tourism Minister, Ms Upston is one of the ministers overseeing the Major Events Fund.
She said she was impressed with the Dunedin City Council’s focus on events as a way to stimulate the economy and generate employment.
There had been ‘‘a number’’ of local events in Dunedin that had already received funding through the Regional Events Boost, and ‘‘there will be more events to come’’.
She would not say what events.
‘‘We’re doing an event review at the moment, and we’ll then do a new event strategy, and it’s really then about how do we make sure that there are events that go into different parts of the country, and we focus on strategic advantages for each area.’’
Using the University of Otago to ‘‘maximise’’ event opportunities would be a good idea for Dunedin, she said.
Ms Upston, who visited the Scenic Hotel Southern Cross yesterday, met two young people who had recently been employed at the hotel through the government’s flexi-wage initiative, which helps organisations hire staff and get them the skills needed to do the job.
‘‘I think sometimes there’s a view that many of the people who are on Jobseeker Benefit don’t have skills and experience that are relevant for vacancies that come up.
‘‘We know for small businesses, recruitment’s a really big challenge, so if they can work with MSD and get pre-screened candidates it takes a load off the small business as well.’’
Ms Upston said there were 2196 people on the Jobseeker Benefit in the Southern region as at March this year.
‘‘As we grow the visitor numbers, it grows the employment opportunities, which brings it full circle.
‘‘One in nine New Zealanders work in tourism and hospitality. So the more we can get young people into the career, the better.’’
