Sunday 10 March 2013

TAA Welcomes Tourism Australia's Working Holiday Campaign

Tourism Australia's marketing campaign to promote working holidays will help to showcase Australia to a new generation of international visitors, according to Tourism Accommodation Australia (TAA).

The $4 million campaign, based around the offer of six 'Best Jobs in the World' working in tourism regions, will highlight Australia's unique and diverse experiences to the international youth market.

"The Working Holiday Visa is an important component of the tourism industry and Tourism Australia is smart to target young holiday makers with the lure of adventure", said TAA Managing Director, Rodger Powell.

"These visitors spend an average of $13,000 in Australia per trip and make a $2.5 billion contribution per year to the Australian economy.  The more of these visitors we can attract to our shores, the better.

"Working holiday makers are also a valuable source of labour for hotels struggling to fill jobs in an industry where there are 36,000 job vacancies.

"Promoting Australia's working holiday opportunities through an innovative and fun campaign will help to broaden our appeal internationally, but the impact will be limited unless the Government makes some changes to the rules regarding the Working Holiday Visa.

"Unfortunately the Working Holiday Visa is not available in China, our most important and fastest growing tourist market.  In fact, across Asia the Visa is either not available or severely restricted in number.  This is at odds with the Government's intentions, through the Australia in the Asian Century White Paper, to capitalise on the growth of our neighbouring countries.

"The current age limit of 30 years is too young and hasn't kept pace with changing traveller demographics.  It should be raised to 35 years to remain relevant in the international travel market.

"It also doesn't make sense that working holiday makers who work in the mining or agriculture industries are eligible to extend their stay by another 12 months but those who work in the tourism industry are not."

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