Hospitality review roadmap for a more productive sector

We reviewed regulation of the hospitality sector and found that it should be easier and less expensive to open a hospitality business in New Zealand and keep it running, while still protecting public health and safety.

New Zealand’s hospitality sector includes more than 25,000 businesses, generates $21.4 billion in revenue, and employs more than 193,000 people.  

We did this review following a report from the 2024 Hospitality Summit that said outdated, overlapping and confusing rules were holding back growth.  We confirmed through our own analysis that there was a case for a regulatory review.

Today we published our Final Report which contains 24 recommendations to improve regulation of the hospitality sector. It also contains 10 comments about potential future work to improve the system. 

Throughout the review we heard that regulatory requirements can be costly, complex and time-consuming, with businesses often having to wait months or provide the same information repeatedly to different regulators.

We found that while hospitality rules and regulations generally protect public health and safety, they can be costly, complex and slow - especially for food safety, alcohol licensing, fees, information sharing and decision timeframes.  

Our recommendations include changes to streamlining alcohol licensing processes, simplify food safety requirements, improve information sharing between regulators and regulated parties and make fees more transparent and risk-based.

Together, we think these changes would reduce unnecessary compliance costs, make the system easier to navigate and help hospitality businesses invest, innovate and grow.

The Government’s response to the report's recommendations will be progressed by relevant Ministers and agencies. Progress will be tracked through a Hospitality Action Plan.

More information

Hospitality Sector Regulatory Review

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