About 35 Queenstown tourism and hospitality employers attended the meeting about the new Queenstown hospitality and tourism working holiday pilot scheme.
Queenstown Novotel's general manager Jim Moore said he supported the scheme but it was frustrating that existing workers were having trouble renewing their work permits while new people were being targeted to come and work.
Work permits were harder to secure in times of rising unemployment among New Zealanders, he said.
He said 55% of staff in Queenstown's tourism and hospitality industry were on work visas.
He would always attempt to employ New Zealanders first, but foreign workers were essential to his business, he said.
Novotel had 22 different nationalities employed at the moment, he said.
Immigration New Zealand acting regional manager Alan Barry said the work permit scheme was very different from the working holiday scheme.
Employers had to prove they made "genuine attempts" to employ New Zealanders before a work permit would be issued.
However, employers could take on working holiday visa holders for up to 12 months because the visas were a reciprocal agreement with specific countries.
Chamber of Commerce board member Richard Thompson said it was a "fantastic" scheme for Queenstown.
"The chamber is right behind it. It's exactly the sort of scheme Queenstown needs to fill those ebbs and flows of seasonal businesses," he said.
He said Immigration New Zealand and Work and Income New Zealand needed to work closely with employers to ensure people waiting for permit renewals were processed quickly.
The backlog of work permit applications needed to be cleared before employers could know how many working holidaymakers they needed, he said.
