Tourism bookings are already falling as uncertainty around working holiday maker visas hits Australia\u2019s $4.4 billion backpacker market, industry leaders have warned.<\/strong><\/p>\n Tourism & Transport Forum (TTF) CEO Margy Osmond said a decline had been seen across a range of tourism activities over the past four to five weeks.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are already seeing a drop in bookings for a whole range of tourism activities around the country,\u201d Osmond said.<\/p>\n That included tourism boats on Sydney Harbour, flights and visits to national parks.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are working holiday makers who not only come here to work, but spend all of their money having a tourism experience and supporting regional towns across the entire country,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The warning was issued at Australian Parliament House in Canberra on Thursday, where four major industry bodies joined forces to call for urgent action on working holiday maker visas.<\/p>\n Osmond appeared alongside National Farmers\u2019 Federation (NFF) CEO Michael Guerin, Accommodation Australia CEO James Goodwin and Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) CEO Andrew McKellar.<\/p>\n The group called for greater certainty as Australia heads into the peak summer tourism and harvest seasons.<\/p>\n Working holiday makers spend around $4.4 billion in Australia every year, according to TTF. More than $1 billion is spent in regional communities, while around $1.6 billion is paid in tax.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are critical to both our workforce outcomes and from the tourism industry\u2019s perspective, they\u2019re a vital part of our international travelling public,\u201d Osmond said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey provide unique skills and they spend every dollar they make here in Australia and particularly in our regional areas.\u201d<\/p>\n Their value to Australian tourism can also continue long after their working holiday ends.<\/p>\n Osmond said working holiday makers were statistically the most likely to return to Australia as tourists.<\/p>\n \u201cSo they come back and contribute all over again,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n ACCI CEO Andrew McKellar claimed processing of subclass 462 Working Holiday visas had effectively been paused across 24 source countries.<\/p>\n \u201cIt hasn\u2019t been transparent, but they have slowed, paused processing of visas under the working holiday maker categories, 462 in particular, across 24 source countries,\u201d McKellar said.<\/p>\n He called for visa applications to be processed in a \u201cprofessional, transparent, open manner\u201d.<\/p>\n Otherwise, shortages could be created in tourism, agriculture and regional Australia, he warned.<\/p>\n The timing was described as the \u201cworst possible\u201d for the tourism and hospitality sector.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going into peak travel season and the time when we need these workers and need that certainty,\u201d Accommodation Australia CEO James Goodwin said.<\/p>\n Accommodation Australia represents close to 5,000 hospitality, travel and accommodation providers, with a workforce of around 250,000 people.<\/p>\n Goodwin said there were currently 38,000 vacancies across the sector.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now the local workforce simply can\u2019t meet the demand that we have,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Working holiday makers were particularly valuable because they were mobile and flexible, he added.<\/p>\n Osmond also warned that uncertainty around the scheme could push working holiday makers towards competing destinations.<\/p>\n A similar situation had occurred previously, she said. International agencies responsible for placing working holiday makers had stopped recommending Australia.<\/p>\n \u201cCanada were the absolute beneficiaries of that outcome and it took us years to restore confidence for those working holiday makers to come here,\u201d Osmond said.<\/p>\n \u201cSo it\u2019s really critically important to understand that urgency issue right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Concerns were also raised over delays in skilled migration.<\/p>\n Goodwin said it was currently taking nine months to process a skilled worker in the hospitality sector.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is not acceptable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n If cuts were made to skilled migration, employer-sponsored migrants should be prioritised over independent migrants, Goodwin argued.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know there is already a job for them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know that we need that employee and that skill and that labour shortage is already there.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n kabarsula SLOT <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tourism bookings are already falling as uncertainty around working holiday maker visas hits Australia\u2019s $4.4…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1114,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kabarsula"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Working holiday makers worth $4.4bn to Australia<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/travelweekly.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/IMG_3303-scaled.jpeg\"\/)
![\"The](\"https:\/\/travelweekly.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/IMG_3303-scaled.jpeg\")
Visa processing \u2018paused\u2019 across 24 countries<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Australia risks losing backpackers to Canada<\/strong><\/h3>\n