First £10 Flyers depart for Adelaide
An Irish backpacker from Dublin will become the first person to travel to Australia under the South Australian Tourism Commission’s ‘£10 Flight’ campaign.
The inaugural voyage takes place just weeks after the program was announced to inspire young workers to start their working holiday adventure in Adelaide and regional South Australia.
Over 16,000 people in the UK and Ireland registered their interest in buying one of the 200 £10/€10 return tickets to Adelaide when the campaign was launched in late April 2022 – with the flights selling out in under five minutes.
Keen traveller, 29-year-old Niamh Mulkerrins of Galway, Ireland, is the first to board a plane to Adelaide on the £10/€10 ticket – departing Dublin today, and arriving into Adelaide tomorrow night. She will be joined by 10 other young travellers later this month.
“I’m so excited to be the first of the 200 £10 flyers to depart and can’t wait to arrive in Adelaide. I’m already thinking I’d like to extend my Working Holiday Visa, staying on for a second year,” she said.
“To do this I need to do 88 days seasonal work in regional Australia so I’m planning on finding farm work in South Australia. I’ve been working in insurance for the last seven years in Ireland so I’m seriously ready for a new adventure.”
The success of the program has been so significant that the South Australian Tourism Commission is now extending the deal with £499 return airfares being offered to those Working Holiday Visa holders who were not successful in the £10 campaign.
All the £10 flyers have a valid Working Holiday Visa and are booked to fly into Adelaide before the end of September 2022 with flight partner Qatar Airways.
Working Holiday Makers (WHMs) make up to 250,000 Australian job and contributed $3.2 billion to Australia’s visitor economy in 2019, representing seven per cent of total visitor spend.
WHMs from the United Kingdom represent 49,500 visitors to Australia each year, contributing $493 million to Australia’s visitor economy and making up 7.4 per cent of all arrivals.
Approximately 11,000 Irish WHMs were arriving into Australia each year pre pandemic.
Pre-COVID, the backpacker market was a significant employer within the hospitality, tourism and primary industry sector. South Australia had 27,000 working holiday visitors to the state in 2019, spending $47 million in the visitor economy.
Minister for Tourism Zoe Bettison said the campaign would help fill much needed job vacancies.
“We can’t wait to welcome the £10 flyers and all those others who have been inspired by the campaign to start their Working Holiday Visa adventure in Adelaide.
Adelaide is Australia’s most liveable city and ranked the third most liveable city in the world, and we know the backpackers will love our small bar scene, beaches, national parks and wineries,” she said.
“When they leave the city and its surrounds to explore regional South Australia, they’ll have an incredible time working on outback stations, in country pubs, on oyster farms and on conservation projects.
We have a range of exciting jobs on offer across the state which will earn them a great salary which they can use to fund travel experiences which will stay with them forever.”