A peak tourism body has put its support behind calls to lift the cut-off age for working holiday visas, saying access to a larger pool of workers would be integral for the sector to fully recover.
Tourism Industry Council Tasmania chief executive Luke Martin welcomed the changes, which he said would be needed if Australia wanted to remain competitive as a tourist destination.
"There just aren't enough people at the moment," Mr Martin said.
"So, we've got to just extend the net as far as we can, and working holiday makers are one obvious solution that we can kind of bring in quickly."
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Australia's working holiday visa is only available for people 35 years and under, but Tourism and Transport Forum chief executive Margy Osmond on Monday called for this to be raised to 50 to help fill the tourism sector's worker shortage.
Ms Osmond also urged the government to halve or remove all visa fees.Closed borders and economic uncertainty have impacted the number of working holiday visa holders in Australia, which declined from about 141,000 in late 2019 to about 54,000 in July of this year, according to data from the Department of Home Affairs.
"It's a serious issue we've got, and we're going to see it bite as the summer goes on," Mr Martin said.
And although the demand within the tourism sector was already booming from domestic and interstate travel, Mr Martin said any visa reforms now would likely not provide any relief until at least next summer.
East Coast Tourism Tasmania chief executive Grace Keath also backed the changes, which she said would assist the worker shortage on the state's remote east coast.
"Because quite a few of our major tourism hotspots are fairly remote, [businesses] are finding it quite hard to attract staff," Ms Keath said.
"So we'd welcome any solutions to get more people into the workforce."
Backpacker shortage just one piece of the puzzle
Despite hopes from within the sector that changes will bring more workers into stressed and overworked regional areas, Mr Martin said any reforms to visa laws won't be a panacea, and he said a range of strategies would need to be implemented to prop the sector up.
Among them were developing training programs to get young people into the industry's workforce, and transitioning tourism and hospitality businesses away from a casual workforce to part- or full-time workers.
He also said the TICT had begun to investigate more ways to bring retirees and pensioners - who were either travelling or looking for ways to supplement their pension - into the workforce.
With changes to the Age Pension income test earlier this year allowing pensioners to earn more before being penalised for excess income, Mr Martin said more older Tasmanians may consider entering the sector.
A migration review by the federal government has been established to address the nation's worker shortage.
