What happens if a global tourism marketing campaign dresses up as a job recruitment drive A global reality TV show gets under way.
Tourism Queensland launched its Best Job in the World competition in January hoping to generate fresh interest in Australia’s sunshine state – a dream location, according to the locals, that is beautiful one day, and perfect the next. The internet, and its social networking sites, then delivered. Within the first 48 hours, they had received more than 7,500 online applications. Better still, more than 200,000 people logged onto the site in the first weekend alone, placing unexpected strains on server capacity. No wonder. In these “feel-bad” times, Tourism Queensland had opened up the ultimate feel-good job: the post of ‘caretaker’ at the blissful Hamilton Island on the Great Barrier Reef, with a six-month contract worth a handy Aus $150,000 (US $110,000). Wild card Then there’s the three-bedroom beach home you get to luxuriate in, which comes with a swimming pool and golf cart.
Nice work, if you can get it, and 34,000 applicants from over 200 countries thought they stood a chance.