Speaking to the Otago Tourism Policy School, themed "How can we effectively resource New Zealand’s tourism system?", Ms Upston said her top priority was to ensure the industry was New Zealand’s top export earner by 2034.
Her second was developing its "human capital".
"If you think about resources, developing talent — our human capital — is a critical part of the mix.
"I’m sick to death of these conversations around hospitality and tourism as low wages, short term and not a long-term aspiration for anyone.
"I’m sorry, that is bulls... and we should call it out.
"Because if I look around the room, there is a group of people here who are outstanding business leaders, and I need you to sell your sector and make sure that young New Zealanders know they have an amazing, amazing career and an enormous contribution to make to New Zealand by working in this sector."
In terms of the broader industry, Ms Upston told delegates at the University of Otago-organised forum, who included industry, government and research leaders, she was up for change, "and I think we do need to change".
She put a series of questions to attendees examining how the industry would double the value of export growth in nine years.
Those included how well Tourism New Zealand did in terms of delivering visitors, whether the country should have an
overall destination management plan, if the regional tourism system was operating and if Qualmark was "delivering values to our visitors".
"When I ask these questions, it’s not just about ‘are they fit for purpose?’
"My question today is, ‘are they fit for the future?’."
Ms Upston said her immediate focus had been on getting more visitors into New Zealand, and noted until the country got back to the tourism numbers it had in 2019 it was a "wasted resource ... a wasted opportunity".
"And I don’t think there are many businesses around New Zealand who are saying, ‘hi, thank you, I’ve got enough customers, I don’t need any more’."
She accepted, however, there were "some challenges" in certain areas of the country, including Queenstown and the MacKenzie District.
Attendees heard Queenstown had a tourism approval rating of 20 — MacKenzie Tourism manager Lydia Stoddart told Ms Upston her district, which had "the privilege of having the highest visitor volume, lowest ratepayers", had a tourism approval rating of just 11, the lowest in the country.
Ms Stoddart said her community "absolutely love and see the benefit of tourism, but we just need to address the challenges".
"Those challenges are significant in our district.
"We are absolutely on board with the growth journey, and there are absolutely times can take volume growth, but we have some dire problems," she said.
Ms Upston replied while she recognised the challenges Queenstown and the Mackenzie district faced, "what I don’t want to do is then dampen down any comment, or any kind of drive for more visitor numbers, based on a couple of hot spots".
"I don’t think that would be a rational or sensible thing to do.
"I’m keen to have a conversation more specifically with your district ... we will need to have a premium on some places in New Zealand, and yours is one of them.
"What works in your area will be different from Queenstown and ... Auckland and ... we have to be flexible enough to look at resourcing and not just apply a one-size-fits-all, because your challenge is unique."
The Otago Tourism Policy School, established in 2019, concludes today.
Meanwhile, Ms Upston also announced the opening of a second funding round for the Regional Events Promotion Fund yesterday, through which regional tourism organisations would have a pool of $2.45million to pitch for.
A total of $2.375m was allocated to 132 events in the first round.
