News Service from House Harris

Qld: Best job in the world experiencing application overload

BRISBANE, Feb 18 AAP - The Best Job in the World is experiencing application overload, and Tourism Queensland has had to increase its IT support for the website in its final days.

Tourism Minister Desley Boyle says applications are flooding in, and with a significant spike in traffic and applications, the site's expecting a heavy hit rate across the weekend.

"We're not sure if people have been holding out to size up the quality of the opposition, or whether they have just caught onto this worldwide phenomenon, but we are seeing a significant increase," she said.

"20,000 people from over 180 countries have so far applied for the role of Caretaker of the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef in what has become arguably the most talked-about job vacancy in the world".

The promotion gained worldwide attention when it launched in January, offering a six-month gig in which the successful applicant will live in a luxury Hamilton Island villa, explore the reef, its islands and wildlife, swim, snorkel and blog about it.

Just two days after the launch of the campaign the site was flooded by hundreds of thousands of hits, sending it into meltdown.

"For a $1.8 million campaign we have received nearly $80 million in publicity," said Ms Boyle.

The minister says the campaign is arguably one of the most successful tourism promotions ever, attracting more than 2.3 million people to the website.

Applicants' 60-second video clips uploaded to the competition's website show eager job hunters from Mongolia, Romania, Turkey, Brazil, Canada and the Vatican bragging, begging and singing for the job.

All applications must be submitted by 9.59am (AEST) on Monday and the successful candidate will be named on Hamilton Island on May 6th.

Applications can be lodged on islandreefjob.com.