Invisible Until They’re Gone: ‘Keystone’ Occupations for Sustainable Visitor Experiences

Authentic and unique hospitality, tourism, events and culinary experiences form a crucial part of visitors and travellers’ enjoyment and positive evaluation of a destination. This paper explores some of the workforce issues associated with creating authentic and unique visitor experiences. It highlights two essential components of providing positive visitor experiences - infrastructure, and a skilled tourism workforce. We introduce the emerging concept of ‘keystone occupations’. Using cases from across the Tasman we show how destinations depend on these critical occupations, especially as their skills are vital to fully functional infrastructure in mobilizing visitor experiences.