Auch die Backpacker profitieren vom Boom in WA. Backpacker, die in Westaustralien arbeiten, verdienen über $60,000/Jahr; wegen dem grossen Arbeitskräftemangel in WA.
Zu lesen in der Samstagsausgabe "The West Australian" (http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?M…ContentID=95023):
Active Travel and Recruitment consultant Danielle Prowse said backpackers were coming to Perth in droves to fill their bank accounts as well as their photo albums, with her agency placing around 30 people a week in various industries including agriculture, customer service and hospitality.
“Backpacking is not the hippie thing it used to be, they are making really good money,” she said. “Some of them up north working on farms, cattle stations and in hospitality are making $2000 a week.”
Ms Prowse said the number of backpackers flooding into WA reflected the State’s growing reputation overseas as the place to visit to make serious money. “Last summer the backpackers’ hostels were turning away up to 200 people a week because they did not have the room for any more,” she said. “Even now, the hostels are at 80 to 90 per cent occupancy.”
Paul Robbins, a 30-year-old shopfitter from Scotland, said since he arrived in WA nearly six months ago he had been making an average of $1300 a week working as a furniture removalist. He also had worked decontaminating iron ore ships, which paid $3500 for a seven-day week. “There is a lot of money here,” he said. “Everywhere else is going through recession, but WA is booming.”
Mr Robbins’ travelling companion, Lee Denning, a 22-year-old plasterer from Bristol, said he came to Perth because he had heard it was not only nice and relaxed, but the place to go to line your pockets. “There’s so much opportunity here,” he said. “Perth is known in Britain as a place to go for money, especially if you are a tradesman, a plasterer or something. It’s known for all the work and how easygoing it is.”
Earlier this year, Tourism WA launched websites in Britain and South Korea promoting the benefits of working holidays on Australia’s west coast. The websites allowed would-be visitors to apply for WA jobs from their own countries.
Tourism WA estimated that in 2007, nearly 8000 Koreans took working holidays in WA, spending about $39 million. More than 166,000 visitors from Britain spent nearly $296 million.
Tourism Council of WA chief executive Graham Moss said the websites had helped draw the current influx of backpackers into the State. “I think those initiatives are bearing fruit,” he said.
Mr Moss said many industries in WA were reliant on backpackers to make up the labour shortfall. “At the moment backpackers provide a valuable source of labour for a variety of industries,” he said.
Ms Prowse said in some parts of WA’s North-West, up to 80 per cent of positions in hospitality were being filled by backpackers. “It used to be 80 per cent of employees were locals and 20 per cent were backpackers, now it’s reversed,” she said.
She said typically, backpackers would use WA as a “pit stop”, arriving here after a trip through Asia and working to finance the next leg of their travels.