Australia’s addiction to sports and success in winning hosting bids for major international sporting events are drawing record numbers of overseas visitors to Australia with hotels and tourism operators saying occupancy rates are soaring.

Although figures are still being collated, it’s estimated around 30,000 people travelled from overseas to watch AFC matches, and another 50,000 are expected down under for the cricket, according to a report on news.com.au. Other sources put overseas visitor figures at about 20,000 annually for the Australian Open and Grand Prix. In addition to this millions of sports fans around the world get to witness television broadcasts of Australia’s prowess in hosting these events and offers snippets of the great attractions the vast country has on offer.

The three major cities all saw occupancy spike over 7 per cent from last year, according to the report. Speaking to newss.com.au, Accor Pacific Chief Operating Officer Simon McGrath said major sporting events played a vital role in growing the visitor economy.

“For many visitors the Asian Cup is not just about football, as it provides a unique incentive to visit Australia and tour around the country,” said Mr McGrath.

Australian Hotels Association CEO, Stephen Ferguson, told news.com.au that it was important the success of the big sporting events was recognised by governments at all levels.

The Chinese reportedly made over 100 million overseas trips last year spending a record $208 billion. Chinese investors now are looking to tap into this growth by buying up hotels and leisure properties hoping that that like the Japanese before, their tourists will choose to dine and play at Chinese-owned properties, reports The Australian.

International tourist arrivals rose by 4.7 per cent to 1.14 billion in 2014, according to the Madrid-based World Tourism Organisation. "Over the past years, tourism has proven to be a surprisingly strong and resilient economic activity," secretary general of the UN body, Taleb Rifai, said in a statement.

Outbound Chinese tourism is one of the key drivers of global tourism with Chinese tourists spending a record $US164.8 billion ($AUD 208 billion), according to figures reported by The Australian.

Some 709,000 Chinese tourists to Australia spent about $5.3 billion in Australia last year. Tourism Australia says recent forecasts indicate the spend could rise to $13 billion annually by 2020. Some tourist spots like Sovereign Hill in Victoria report that 80% of their visitors are from China.

Chasing the Chinese tourism dollar are some of China’s biggest investors who have been snapping up brands, property and other assets across the globe to serve as a magnet for China’s booming outbound tourist market, reports The Australian.

ClicksIT Recruitment  annual recruitment survey has found that although Australia’s  information technology sector is expected to expand slightly this year allowing companies to increase staffing levels, employers are saying that they will be looking to hire local staff and reduce their reliance on sc457 workers.

In what the industry sees as a surprising shift in employer’s attitude, IT companies are expected to be turning to temporary workers to fill their staffing needs this year according to a report on itwire.com.

The survey found that IT companies are forecasting profit rises of between 11% and 20% as organisations have put in place plans to increase their IT budgets and IT professionals staffing levels.

“This growth is due to an increase in projects that focus on digital transformation, cloud uptake and refreshing core systems” Ben Wood, the Managing Director of Clicks IT Recruitment told itwire.com.

“The IT role most in demand is business analyst, which traditionally is among the first skill hired at the start of a project, indicating a strong pipeline of project work,” noted Mr Woods.

Desparate to control the misleading and fraudulent conduct of some education brokers in Australia, the government is looking into measures to make educational institutions directly liable for the behaviour of their brokers.

Education brokers are not required to be registered unless they intend to provide immigration assistance. To provide immigration assistance, a person must register as a migration agent with the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority (Office of the MARA).

It is not always easy to separate the two. If you browse the websites of some education brokers, you will find some boasting of how quickly they have managed to obtain student visas for their clients. Yet nowhere on the site is there any indication that they are registered for providing migration advice.

The big issue is how exactly do the authorities weed out brokers dealing in fraudulent student visa applications or misleading and misguiding students about the streamlined visa program and thus potentially damaging the reputation of Australia’s $16 billion dollar education industry.

Regulating education brokers has been an issue the government has been grappling with for a while, according to a report in The Australian. Currently there is an ad hoc system whereby brokers have the option of undergoing voluntary training which some education institutions have put down as a requirement for brokers wanting to represent them. The overriding legislation governing broker conduct however is the very general Australian Consumer Law.

Backpackers enticed to come to Australia with the promise of sunshine, adventure and fair wages are instead falling prey to unscrupulous businesses. DIBP needs to do a lot more to equip working holiday visa holders with information on their rights.

The Fair Work Ombudsman says that too many backpackers are being ripped off. It recently commenced legal proceedings against a Tasmanian business owner for allegedly underpaying 5 backpackers in a brazen scheme targeting backpackers desperately trying to fulfil their sc417 visa obligations.

“We will put to the court that five young backpackers from Italy, the UK and Japan were paid as little as the equivalent of $1.35 an hour when they were entitled to between $22 and $32 an hour, that’s depending on their shift and therefore were collectively underpaid almost $43,000,” Craig Bilstein of the FWO office told the ABC.

According to the ABC the statement of claim filed with the courts accuses the business owner of ‘promising to sign-off on an Italian woman’s 88day regional stint requirement in 2013. He then allegedly paid her $272 for 4 weeks work. And when Fair Work inspectors came knocking, the [the business owner] told them the staff were guests or volunteers rather than workers.”

Penalties for a breach of work conditions are severe with fines up to $10,400 for individuals and $51,000 for a company per contravention, say Craig Bilstein of the FWO office.

So far little has been done to help vulnerable entrants to Australia like backpackers and students to deal with these abuses. The sc417 visa allows those aged between 18 and 30 from 19 countries to work in Australia for 1 year with the prospect for some to extend it to another year if they work for 88 days in a regional area in specific industries, like agriculture and construction.