Tim Alpe: Lylo managing director suggests working holiday visa age limit get raised

An accommodation company's pitching for raising the working holiday visa age from 30 to 50.

Lylo managing director Tim Alpe wants restrictions eased to attract more people, pointing to the struggle still faced by tourism. 

He says lifting the age would provide flexibility for older people keen to try something new.

Alpe says it'd have no downside. 

"I just think that by limiting it to 30 or 35, we aren't that competitive with Australia and Canada - who are killing it."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Heather Dup to see Allen. As we know, tourism numbers
are not flashed. That's New Zealand revealed last week the
tourism numbers have dropped for the second month in a row.
One suggestion to fix this is that we raise the
upper age limit of our working holiday visa. It's currently
at thirty, why not take it all the way to fifty.
The idea has come from Tim Alp, the managing director
of Lilo. Hey.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Tim, hey, ever, how are you going?

Speaker 1 (00:19):
I'm well, thanks? Do you reckon people up to the
age of fifty want to come here and work?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah? I do. I think I think definitely there's definitely
interest from people who are a little more flexible in
terms of the stage of life and who are really
keen to do you know, post COVID to look at
sort of working holiday adventures.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Like what kind of areas would they work in?

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Oh, I think in all areas around hospitality, tourism. They
want to come down here. See They'll see that they're
a bit more disposable time come down here and travel
and also work and you know, it might be cafes,
might be fruit picking, it might be on ski fields.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Are these I mean, a lot of people between the
ages of thirty and fifty have families because we leave
it till so late nowadays to have babies. So are
you thinking about people who are childless?

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Oh, both childless and people who want to potentially come
down with families and travel. But I think what we
last seeing is people are going, Actually, I can work
remotely nowadays, so we've obviously seen the digital visa change
and no man visa change, which has been quite attractive.
But just people who are a bit more flexible who
may want to come down. I just think by limiting
it to thirty or to thirty five, we aren't that

(01:22):
competitive with the likes of Australia and Canada, you know,
who are killing it.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
And also tim, I mean, aren't people in the a
you know, especially when you sort of start having that
forty aren't you sort of the height of your career
or getting into it so you probably want to stick
it out wherever you are.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
Oh. I think some people are definitely in that, But
I think some people are also having a bit of
life changing experiences as well and going Actually, there's sometimes
there's more to life than focusing one hundred percent on
my career. I want to take a bit of a break.
I want to take six months a year off. I
just think it gives flexibility and we are seeing an
increase in that, so why not cater towards it?

Speaker 1 (01:54):
Yeah, totally. Well there's no downside is there if we
do this?

Speaker 2 (01:57):
No, there's no downside at all. If anything, it makes
us a lot more competitive globally. And people who are
wanting to take up this opportunity.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
What's going on with tourism? How bad is it?

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Oh? It's tough here, you know, it's definitely tough. I mean, look,
there are some green shoots in the horizon, but you know,
when you lock yourself down for a couple of years,
it's hard to bounce back up again, right, and so,
and we are competing in a very hugely competitive market globally,
and that's the reason why I'm sort of saying, well,
why put the barriers up? Why don't we just introduce
new things to make it more and more attractive.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Your minister is the minister and irresponsible for this would
be Erica Stanford, wouldn't.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
It, Louise Upton?

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Allu and have you chatted to her about it?

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah? No, I haven't chatted her about the specific one,
but she's definitely taking a pretty proactive approach. I think
the government's finally realize that tourism is a huge contributor,
should be the number one expert inner it's not right now,
and there's a really good opportunity for us to sort
of pull ourselves out of sort of some of the
state that we're in right now if we really embrace tourism.
But we've got to get out there and market New
Zealand as a place to come to. Airlines got to

(02:58):
come on board as well and make it a lot
more attractive to get here. And but once to hear
we know they love it. We just got to open
ourselves up and be a lot more lot hattering good stuff.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
Tim, thanks so much, appreciate it. That's Tim alp Lilo
Managing Director. For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen
live to news Talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.