By Calvin Palmer
It is being billed as “The Best Job in the World” and with thousands of people being laid off as the global recession bites, it is sure to arouse considerable interest.
The tourism department in Queensland, Australia, is offering the position of island caretaker on Hamilton Island, one of the Whitsunday Islands.
The duties involve lazing around on the island for six months. The salary is A$150,000 ($100,000, £69,000).
This tempting and idyllic position is a part of an AU$1.7 million ($1.1 million, £782,000)to boost tourism in the state.
In exchange for the generous salary, free accommodation in an oceanfront villa and airfare from the winner’s home country, the successful applicant will be required to stroll the island’s white sand beaches, snorkel, maybe take a dip in the pool and post photos and videos of the experience on a weekly blog.
“It’ll be huge,” Tourism Whitsundays chief executive Peter O’Reilly said, adding he expected thousands will apply.
Interest has been so great that the Web site — www.islandreefjob.com – crashed because of the surge of visitors. It received 160,000 visitors in the first 24 hours, with the British making up 34 percent of the traffic. And more than 210 applications have already been received.
A spokeswoman for Tourism Queensland said the site was back up and running now, although it was expected to “go a bit crazy” when the American audience wakes up to the offer of being paid to live on an island paradise. Yes, crazy to the point where the Web site will not load.
Applications are open until Feb. 22 and 11 finalists will be flown to Hamilton Island in May for the final selection process. The job begins on July 1.
Tourism Queensland admits the job was created to revive interest in travel to Australia, and specifically the Great Barrier Reef, during the global economic downturn.
Figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics earlier this week showed the number of foreign visitors to Australia plummeted 5.1 per cent in November compared to the previous year.
Having been raised in Stoke-on-Trent, England, where looking a gift horse in the mouth is ingrained at birth and then going on to become a journalist, one of the most cynical and skeptical of professions, it all sounds too good to be true.
To pay for the kind of global coverage this story has received in terms of paid advertising would probably bankrupt the state of Queensland. Thanks to an amazing publicity stunt, it hasn’t cost them a cent. Congratulations to whoever thought up the idea.
I wonder if the successful “job” applicant will be announced in a similar vein. I doubt it. And by July, all those who have applied will have forgotten they even applied or that the “job” existed.
By then a myriad of things on YouTube will be sure to have diverted their attention.
[Based on reports by newsday.com and The Daily Telegraph.]
