The Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC) is calling for tourism and hospitality work across all regional areas in Australia to be included under the Working Holiday Maker (WHM) visa program’s qualification for second and third-year visas.
The Federal Government is examining the WHM visa as part of the Review of Regional Migration Settings.
ATEC is also recommending that the qualifying period for both the second and third-year visas is limited to 88 days.
“Our recent member survey showed just how important WHM visitors are to Australia’s tourism economy with half of businesses saying they are vital employees and more than half saying they are a vital visitor market,” said ATEC Managing Director, Peter Shelley.
“While employing WHM long-term isn’t the essence of the visa, the survey also revealed a strong desire of tourism businesses to employ WHM for a minimum of 6 months given the cost, time and effort required to train them.”
Other recommendations include revising the maximum age limit upwards to 35 for all countries, and making a second WHM visa available to those who first used it under the age of 30 and have spent four years outside Australia.
There is also a recommendation to look at expanding future age limits up to 40 or 45 to tap into the growing ‘digital nomad’ and ‘career breaker’ trend globally.
ATEC also recommends an additional budget of AU$5 million per annum be allocated to Tourism Australia to undertake promotional activities encouraging WHM to travel and work across Australia, and that targeted marketing efforts are implemented to promote regional dispersion of WHMs.
“The WHM visa is vital to Australia’s tourism export strategy and ATEC believes targeted improvements can work to promote regional dispersal and increase visitor yield which will benefit regional economies,” Shelley said.
“We look forward to the Government’s response to industry submissions and to continuing the success of our 50-year-old WHM program into the future.”