Diving instructor Ken Lio, from Taiwan, at work on Green Island off Cairns. PIC: Stewart Mclean Source: The Courier-Mail
BACKPACKERS are set to stay longer in Australia following moves from the tourism industry to extend work visas.
In what could be a billion-dollar boost to the economy, Federal Cabinet-in-confidence plans reveal moves to open up working holiday visas, lift the upper age limit and allow up to a two-year stay if visitors work in regional tourism jobs.
Chinese speakers are set to head the new wave of working holidaymakers with Hong Kong visitors and Taiwanese the fastest growing group of working-holiday visa applicants.
Tourist operators are pushing for the proposed changes with figures showing the one-year extension would boost the economy by $700 million in the coming decade alone.
It comes ahead of a global Tourism Australia campaign due to be launched by federal Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson next month.
Unions are unlikely to oppose the plan, despite the backlash over 457 visas in the mining sector, because jobs are temporary and often unskilled, such as hospitality, house-keeping and fruit picking.
"Ken" Liu Chao An, 24, of Taiwan, has spent four months as a dive instructor on Green Island, on the Great Barrier Reef off Cairns.
"I feel like I'm living a fairytale," said the mechanical engineering student on a year's break.
"I love my life. I love my job. No pressure. Not like the stress at home.
"But time is too short. If they extend the visa rules, I'd definitely stay an extra year."
Visitors on working holiday visas can stay for a year in Australia. They can extend this to two years if they work for 88 days in defined regional industries such as agriculture.
The Australian Tourism Export Council, the nation's peak industry body, wants tourism added to the list.
They estimate a shortfall of workers in temporary tourism jobs of up to 56,000 vacancies in the next three years.
Don Morris, of Hamilton Island, the biggest single resort in the country, said young travellers filled a desperate shortage in staff.
"They make beds, hose, sweep and do the thousand and one jobs that young Aussies don't want to do," said the former Australian Tourism Commission chairman.
"Without South Korean students to pick bananas at Tully, there'd be no fruit in the bowl at home.
"These working holidaymakers are reliable, educated and smart. They work hard, play hard, spend big money and travel all over.
"The more we can do to get them to come here, and stay longer, the better."
Britain, South Korea, Ireland, France and Germany also top the list as latest figures show a 13 per cent hike in working holiday visa applications.
Of the Irish, there was an 82 per cent increase in those coming back for a second working holiday.
Mr Ferguson's office declined to comment.
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