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The Australian Tourism Export Council’s recent member survey highlighted that Working Holiday Maker (WHM) visa holders are a vital part of Australia's tourism sector meeting a critical shortfall in industry workers across our regions. 

As the Federal Government looks at WHM visa settings as part of the Review of Regional Migration Settings, ATEC has called for an expansion of specified work to qualify for 2nd and 3rd year visa to include tourism and hospitality work across all non-metro regions in Australia.

ATEC’s recommendations call for maintaining the WHM as a cultural exchange through travel and regional employment for visa extensions while limiting the qualifying period for both the 2nd and 3rd year visas to 88 days. 

ATEC Managing Director Peter Shelley noted “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.

“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.

"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.

“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.”

ATEC’s submission calls for tourism to be added to the list of ‘specified work’ across all areas of regional Australia as qualification for the 2nd and 3rd year visa to ensure WHM can holiday and work anywhere in regional Australia. Other recommendations include:

• The qualifying period for the 3rd year extension of the visa be reduced to 88 days
• The maximum age limit be revised upwards to 35, unilaterally across all countries
• A second WHM visa be available to those who first used it under 30 and have spent four years outside Australia 
• Look to expand future age limits up to 40 or 45 to help capture the growing ‘digital nomad’ and ‘career breaker’ trend in global tourism. 
• An additional budget of $5million per annum be allocated to Tourism Australia to undertake promotional activities encouraging WHM to travel and work across Australia.  
• Implement targeted marketing efforts to promote regional dispersion of WHMs to mitigate the impact of the recent changes to the UK WHM visa
• That the government look to develop technology solutions for WHM job vacancies with employers required to register to increase transparency and accountability. 

ATEC's full submission available here. 

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