The Government failure to address the shortage of workers faced by the regional tourism industry in Australia has had regional tourism operators now pushing for greater flexibility in the working holiday visa program in order that backpackers can extend their working holiday stay by working in the tourism sector.

Currently, travellers on a Working Holiday Visa must spend 88 days working in the agriculture, mining or construction industry to be eligible to extend their visa for a second year. Regional tourism operators are now pushing for changes to the Working Holiday Visa, so that backpackers looking to extend their stay could work in regional restaurants, caravan parks and motels, according to an ABC report.

However, vegetable growers are resisting the calls by the tourism industry to loosen restrictions on backpacker visas. Vegetable growers told the ABC that such a change would be crippling, making it even harder for growers to source enough labour during critical harvest and packing periods.

Andrew McDonald, a spokesman for the peak body for the vegetable and potato industry, AUSVEG said any change would have a massive and detrimental impact on the industry.

"We don't want to see that workforce diluted by having them potentially opt for tourism jobs over the agricultural jobs that are so important to our industry" says Andrew McDonald, of AUSVEG.

The chair of the Australian Regional Tourism Network, David Sheldon, said it was 'extremely difficult' to find enough qualified labour, and backpackers often had the basic food service and hospitality skills regional tourism operations need.

He rejected the idea that letting backpackers work in tourism would hurt the agriculture sector.

"I think it would open up the market and be beneficial to all sectors of the economy. If we look at the hospitality and the produce side of the market, Australia has a big push for our local produce. Both the sectors should be working hand-in-hand to make it successful" says the chair of the Australian Regional Tourism Network, David Sheldon.

The federal government department responsible for tourism, Austrade, says that regional tourism is suffering and urgently requires workers in hotels, pubs and restaurants. It says that this year, there will be a shortage of some 56,000 workers in the hospitality industry.  It has thus backed industry calls for increased flexibility of the 457 work visas and working holiday visas.

Austrade is seeking a lower English language competency threshold as well as a lower salary threshold for the foreign workers in the hospitality and tourism industry.

Austrade’s message is that if Australians will not support the industry by moving to regional Australia, then the only option left to strengthen tourism and hospitality is for foreigners to fill the gap. The hospitality and tourism industry generates about $42 billion a year and employs over half a million workers.