Working holidaymakers have started returning, and while that’s good news for short-staffed businesses, it will test theories about the economic effects of the closed border.
“Have you been dreaming of Australia?” read the subject line of an email sent this week to more than 100,000 putative backpackers and working holidaymakers scattered across the globe.From left, Simon Fuchs, Zoe Stoner and Vanessa Werner on the rooftop of Sydney Harbour YHA backpacker hostel after they arrived on Friday.
After almost two years shut off to the world, tourism operators are on their knees and desperate for the return of the $45 billion spent by international tourists in 2018-19, the last year unaffected by COVID-19. “They tend to stay longer, spend more and disperse more widely throughout the country than other international arrivals,” TA says, noting that they tend to work in agriculture, tourism, healthcare and aged care.In February 2020, about 15 per cent of accommodation and hospitality businesses reported staff vacancies. A year later the figure doubled to more than 30 per cent, where it remains.
“[Backpackers] shop, they engage with the community, so the loss is more than just the jobs,” says Wendi Aylward, who runs the Australian branch of the American Institute for Foreign Study. Werner will begin working as an au pair for a family on Sydney’s northern beaches and hopes to also pick up work at a local restaurant. And though she has been in the country for less than a week, Werner says it is likely she will take up the optional 12-month extension to her visa.
AIFS now has a pipeline of young workers just like Werner, Stone and Fuchs who will arrive in Australia each fortnight.
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