The Queensland Tourism God’s have spoken, and on March 3, they delivered the news to fifty applicant hopefuls informing them that they were one step closer to snagging the Hamilton Island caretaker position dubbed the best job in the world.
The Hamilton Island dream job, promising a $150,000 AU six month wage, drew 34,684 applications from more than 200 countries right around the globe. Eager hopefuls went to great lengths to prove they were worthy of this once in a life time opportunity where they would live in luxury on the Great Barrier Reef’s Hamilton Island, spending there days exploring their surroundings and reporting back on their experiences through an online blog.
The top 50 candidates came from a host of professions ranging from a dance instructor, charity fundraiser, physiotherapist, DJ, chef and an actor. They represent 22 countries including the UK, Japan, Canada, US, Greece, Germany, Kenya, China, India, New Zealand, Guam and Australia. For those of you interested, the successful applicants can be viewed at www.islandreefjob.com.
This $1.7 million viral marketing campaign is said to have already generated a whopping $70 million worth of publicity for the state of Queensland. A very nice return, if I may say so myself.
The top 50 will be narrowed down to 10 by Tourism Queensland and an eleventh wild card entry will be voted for online by the public. These final 11 candidates will all be flown to Hamilton Island for the final selection before the winner starts work on July 1, 2009.
Wow! What a great concept…had a blast checking out the potential candidates.