Roberts said "Kiwi casualness" done in the right way was part of the New Zealand makeup but there was no excuse for slack or inattentive service.
"Our employers tell us that for those front-line, customer-facing roles it's the personality and attitude that matters, not the qualifications."
It was important to find out that people enjoyed interacting with visitors and going the extra mile.
"Our landscapes and scenery are our great drawcard and as long as we are careful will always be [there] to bring people here but it's their interactions with people that will be their biggest memories."
Social media meant bad experiences spread quickly and widely around the world, Roberts said.
"That will harm an individual business, a region and ultimately the whole of New Zealand if we're not providing the visitors with the very best experience."
The association estimates 12.1 per cent of the total number of people - or 295,908 people - employed in New Zealand work directly or indirectly in tourism.
"We can't be complacent, we have to keep raising the bar. The expectations of travellers worldwide, not only to New Zealand, are increasing."
While there wasn't a tipping culture in New Zealand, more tourist operators were talking about its merits.
"Tipping is getting discussed a bit more - would that drive a higher standard of service?"
Roberts said the onus was on managers and business owners to ensure staff were sufficiently trained to provide good service.
Work done for the association by the NZIER found that there were big labour shortages in some parts of the country, particularly Auckland and Queenstown.
It is estimated that an extra 47,000 workers will be needed in the industry in the next decade.
"Already we're seeing examples of difficulties emerging at certain times of year in certain locations and jobs. We harm our reputation as a visitor destination if we don't have the right people working in the industry."
Shortages of chefs and drivers with passenger endorsements were acute in some places.
"There are the immediate issues to deal with but we've got to have that long-term planning."
Pay could be a deterrent but many younger workers didn't necessarily put a heavy emphasis on wages, he said. "We're part of the service sector and the service sector doesn't have high pay rates at the entry level. In most cases we're not going to attract people in with the hourly rate - it's got to be more than that."
Latest figures show the country had a record 3.06 million short-term visitors in the latest year, up 9 per cent from the year earlier.
Of those, 1.31 million were from Australia, 335,400 from China and 237,700 from the US. The totals are expected to reach more than 4.5 million by 2025.
Roberts said it was relatively easy to start a business in the tourism sector.
"There are career paths and you can go on and become your own boss. The barriers to owning a business in tourism are quite low."
Tourism Holdings chief executive Grant Webster said operators needed to challenge themselves to maintain their position on the world stage.
"We've got to step up," Webster said.
"There's an opportunity now with profits for just about everyone in tourism."
What's worrying tourist businesses
• Service levels
• Pay as a barrier to recruitment
• Poor promotion as a career
• Staff retention
• Workforce capacity
• Staff shortages
• Workforce flexibility
• Visa issues
• Reliance on migrant labour
• Migrant labour exploitation
- Source: Lincoln University survey of tourism operators
