Best Jobs in the World - Australia Launches New Recruitment Drive

Tourism Australia has teamed up with industry and State and Territory tourism partners to launch a new A$4 million campaign targeting the international youth market in a search for candidates to fill "The Best Jobs in the World".

The new campaign follows Tourism Queensland's wildly successful The Best Job in the World competition of 2009, which attracted over 30,000 applicants from all around the world for a six-month position as an Island Caretaker on the Great Barrier Reef.

Tourism Australia is taking the Best Jobs concept to an entirely new level this year, with six dream jobs now up for grabs. The campaign targets applicants between 18 and 30 years of age and will focus primarily on international markets eligible for Australia's Working Holiday Visas. These markets include Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, UK and Ireland, the US, Canada, Germany, France, Italy and Sweden.

"Hong Kong is the ninth biggest source of Australian Working Holiday Visa travellers in the world. In the six months to 31 December 2012, a total of 4,666 visas were granted to Hong Kong applicants, which represented a 65.2% increase over 2011 and a four-fold increase since 2008," said Carmen Tam, Manager, Hong Kong, Tourism Australia.

"Interest in working holidays among Hong Kongers is growing fast. The youth segment plays an important role in the arrivals from Hong Kong market. Australia's sports culture and outdoor lifestyle experiences attract the youth segment. The Best Jobs in the World campaign offers the opportunity for many young people in Hong Kong to come to Australia with an attractive package to broaden their horizons. I believe it will attract many applications, and I am hopeful that the city will produce a winner for one of the dream jobs in this new campaign," added Ms Tam.

The Best Jobs in the World campaign is a global competition involving six of Australia's State and Territory Tourism Organisations - each offering their own unique experiences.

Each Best Job position comes with an attractive six-month salary package worth A$100,000 including living costs. The jobs are:

• Chief Funster (New South Wales)

• Outback Adventurer (Northern Territory)

• Park Ranger (Queensland)

• Wildlife Caretaker (South Australia)

• Lifestyle Photographer (Melbourne)

• Taste Master (Western Australia)

Tourism Australia Managing Director Andrew McEvoy said the competition provides an excellent platform to entice more young people from around the world to come to Australia to holiday as well as to work, helping to fill many tourism jobs across Australia.

"We've taken one of the most successful tourism campaigns in recent times - Best Job in the World - and made it bigger and better by coming up with a competition which represents the very best of our country. These include our breathtaking landscapes and scenery, our unique nature and wildlife, great food and wine and, of course, our huge sense of fun," Mr McEvoy said.

Mr McEvoy said the competition was expected to appeal to youth travellers' sense of fun and adventure. "The youth market contributes more than a quarter of all Australia's international arrivals. These are visitors who tend to stay longer, disperse widely and often come back again, with their families, later in their lives. For many young people, Australia's working holiday visa programs provide the economic means to fund travel plans, and this is at the heart of our new campaign," he said.

"Despite recent challenges - such as the high Australian dollar and the global financial crisis affecting some of Australia's traditional Western markets - the youth traveller segment remains an important part of Australia's visitor mix," Mr McEvoy added.

The youth segment contributes A$12 billion annually in total tourism spending and delivers nearly 1.6 million (26%) of Australia's international arrivals. On average, youth travellers spend A$7,279 per trip in Australia (IVS: September 2012). In 2012, Working Holiday Makers contributed A$2.5 billion to the Australian economy. On average WHMs spend in excess of A$13,000 during their stay.