Weathering the Storm: Wine, Tourism, and Hospitality Resilience in the Face of Extreme Events

Abstract

Purpose: This study examines the resilience of family SMEs in New Zealand's wine, tourism, and hospitality sectors in the face of extreme events. We first focus on the New Zealand wine industry relationship with tourism and hospitality and explore how these industries maintain innovative and sustainable wine systems. Our research concentrates on job attractiveness issues as they relate the seasonal nature of New Zealand’s interconnecting wine, hospitality, and tourism industries where job attractiveness can be exasperated when businesses are affected by extreme events, therefore affecting wine systems. Thus, we will address the question: in the context of extreme events, how do seasonality and job attractiveness affect wine systems for family SMEs in New Zealand's wine and related tourism and hospitality sectors?

Design/methodology/approach: Secondary data were collected from media and industry outlets to identify Hawke’s Bay businesses in wine, tourism and hospitality industries that have struggled, and endured, a recent crisis. A case study design was employed as a suitable way to simultaneously reflect on historic experiences and focus on contemporary events. The case study of the Hawke’s Bay region is in the context of the extreme weather events that took place in early 2023. We draw upon empirical research of organisational resilience from other regions and how it relates to the evolving experiences in innovative and sustainable wine systems.

Findings: In the face of extreme events we found that careful attention needs to be paid to rebuilding the service sector around the winegrowing industry to create high-value, sustainable businesses with quality jobs. Notably, we found that smaller family businesses were vulnerable in terms of preparedness and organisational resilience. Moreover, the job attractiveness and employer reputation issues need to be tackled in the context of extreme events particularly in industries where there are transient seasonal workers.

Originality: We have drawn upon complex theoretical discussions of wine systems and their tourism and hospitality interactions in the context of an extreme event in the Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand. We employed an Event System Theory (EST) framework to guide our study. Several weaknesses in organisational resilience and preparedness were highlighted, including the impact of seasonality and employment conditions on the industries’ job attractiveness. While there are studies on organisational resilience in wine enterprises and family businesses in hospitality, none explicitly focus on the intersection of these three industries.

Research limitations/implications: Focusing on the wine, tourism and hospitality industries plays directly into the largest economic arena in New Zealand. This research discerned practical interventions and challenges for sustained growth and resilience in some of New Zealand’s most vulnerable industries and locations. Practical implications include bringing to the forefront the need for preparedness and organisational resilience in the case of extreme events. This includes better business-government collaboration and having measures in place to mitigate job attractiveness issues.