When you go out to eat and drink at your local bar or favorite restaurant, or any bar and restaurant for that matter, have you ever noticed that the people serving, preparing and managing these places are predominantly from overseas?

New Zealand's hospitality industry is heavily reliant on overseas staff due to a consistent shortfall of locally qualified, dedicated and professional employees.

As a country that's renowned for its tourism, contributing $65.2 million a day into the economy, with hospitality being a vital part of that, isn't it time we realized how vital it is that we need to meet the demand for professional staff through changing the current immigration laws?

We are recognized worldwide as an incredible tourist destination and need to ensure the hospitality sector has the best staff to deliver the highest level of products and services.

As of late the immigration laws have become even more restrictive and prevent employers from retaining their best overseas staff, and these employees from committing to their place of work for an extended period of time, further extensively contributing through their international experience and knowledge within the sector.

The aim of this petition is to make the immigration department recognize the enormous contribution these people make to the hospitality industry in this country.

We need to show how dependent businesses are on such staff, and enable employers to sponsor the right staff to ensure sustainability,stability, consistency and professionalism within this growing and important industry through increasing the length of the work visas, as long as the staff remain with their employer, or within the industry.

Without your support the hospitality industry in this country is going to continue to suffer and be unable to progress at the standards expected worldwide.

Please sign this and send it on to everyone you know and help to make a serious difference so you can continue to have great experiences at bars and restaurants around the country.