Eminent Personalities Support “Best Jobs” Candidates

Two US talk show hosts, an Olympic gold medalist an Academy Award winning actress, a former Australian cricket captain, a German supermodel, a Welsh world champion boxer, a Bollywood actor and a Canadian celebrity chef are amongst the international figures who have provided support for the candidates still in the running for Tourism Australia’s ‘Best Jobs in the World’ competition.

The 150 shortlisted candidates were given two weeks to generate publicity and support for their application, including being asked to find influential figures willing to endorse them for their chosen job.

Tourism Australia Managing Director Andrew McEvoy said the quality and variety of endorsements received had been as eye-catching as the original video entries.

“These candidates are obviously hungry for Australia’s best jobs and have managed to secure support from some very impressive people, including talk show hosts, film stars, authors, musicians, supermodels, sporting stars, explorers, scientists, politicians, celebrity chefs… you name it,’ Mr McEvoy said.

Referees included:

• US talk show hosts, Jay Leno in support of America’s Reena Reuta (for Taste Master) and Stephen Colbert for Jane Chiao (for Chief Funster);
• English broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough in support of the UK’s Mat Richards (for Wildlife Caretaker);
• German supermodel Heidi Klum in support of America’s Graham Freeman (for Outback Adventurer);
• Australian cricketing stars, Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey, and Bollywood actor, Aadarsh Balakrishna in support of India’s Kritika Naidu (for Chief Funster);
• Academy Award winning actress, Shirley Jones in support of America’s Hillary Billings (for Park Ranger);
• English Olympic medal-winning triathletes Alistair and Jonny Brownlee in support of the UK’s Tom Hesketh (for Wildlife Caretaker);
• Former WBO Super Middleweight world boxing champion, Joe Calzaghe in support of Wales’ Gaz Proctor (for Chief Funster);
• Canadian celebrity chefs, John Placko, Mark McEwan and David Adjey in support of Canada’s Mary Gazze (for Taste Master);
• Scottish wildlife filmmaker Gordon Buchanan in support of Scotland’s Jo Muskus (for Park Ranger).

“We’ve really seen the power of advocacy at work in this stage of the contest. The lengths that some candidates have gone to sell themselves and secure support is commendable, as has been their creativity, including using celebrity endorsement, TV, radio, local newspapers, Twitter, creating Facebook campaign pages, writing blogs and uploading videos on YouTube,” he said.
One hundred and fifty people from 35 countries are still in the running for Tourism Australia’s ‘Best Jobs in the World’ competition, with candidates from as far afield as Afghanistan, China, Kazakhstan, Korea, Latvia and Mexico.

Their video entries included a Taste Master applicant ‘singing for his supper’, a spoof ‘007’ assignment for the Park Ranger role and a candidate for the Chief Funster delivering his entire application in rap.

The United States provided the highest number of short-listed candidates (33) followed by the UK (23), Australia (17), France (17), Canada (8) and Italy (5).

Based on these references and original videos, judges will select the 18 strongest candidates (three for each of the six jobs), who will be announced on 15 May.

The 18 will be invited to a final assessment in Australia in mid-June, with the six successful job candidates announced on 21 June 2013.

Tourism Australia’s ‘Best Jobs in the World’ competition is part of a major international marketing push to promote tourism opportunities provided by Australia’s Working Holiday Maker (WHM) program.

The six ‘best jobs’ are: Wildlife Caretaker (South Australia), Chief Funster (New South Wales), Park Ranger (Queensland), Taste Master (Western Australia), Outback Adventurer (Northern Territory) and Lifestyle Photographer (Melbourne, Victoria).

The campaign is supported by Destination NSW, Tourism NT, Tourism Victoria, Tourism Western Australia, Tourism and Events Queensland and South Australian Tourism Commission. In addition a number of key commercial partners are supporting the campaign, including Virgin Australia, STA Travel, Citibank, DELL, IKEA, Sony Music and Monster.com.