11/09/2026
🌏 Working Holiday Makers are more than workers. They’re travellers. Customers. Mates. And an important part of regional tourism.
Here in North Queensland, we see the impact of the Working Holiday Maker program from both sides.
Working Holiday Makers help tourism businesses like ours fill genuine seasonal and regional roles. But just as importantly, they’re also our guests.
They come to Australia to work and travel. They book reef trips. Learn to dive. Stay in local accommodation. Eat at local cafés and restaurants. Explore Magnetic Island, Townsville and the Great Barrier Reef. And they spend their hard-earned dollars in regional communities along the way. 🤿🐠☀️
For businesses like Adrenalin Snorkel & Dive, that matters.
Proposed changes to the Working Holiday Maker visa program could reduce the number of these travellers coming to Australia, how long they stay and their ability to move around the country.
That doesn’t just affect recruitment.
It affects tourism demand too.
Working Holiday Makers are temporary visitors. They come here, earn money, travel Australia, spend within our communities and eventually head home — often becoming lifelong ambassadors for the places and experiences they discovered here.
We support responsible migration management. But Working Holiday Makers shouldn’t become collateral damage in a broader migration debate.
Queensland’s tourism industry is asking the Australian Government to maintain the availability and current length of stay of Working Holiday Maker visas.
If you work in tourism, have travelled Australia on a Working Holiday Visa, employed backpackers, or simply believe regional Australia benefits from these adventurous humans, please add your voice.
👉 Sign the petition: https://c.org/cqZzhSbH68
Then share this post. The more people who speak up, the harder this issue is to overlook.
And to all the Working Holiday Makers who have worked with us, dived with us, snorkelled the Reef with us or shared a b**r with us afterwards — you’re an important part of our tourism community. 💙