Photo: Leonard Low

The Best Job in the World promotion is a worldwide sensation: applications have been received from over 160 countries. Although only one person can win the position, the PR machine has been successful in attracting significant attention to the unique Queensland coast.

But environmental and cultural issues have been ignored by many in the frenzy of applications and paradisaical dreams.

What’s at risk?

The jewel in Queensland’s crown is the Great Barrier Reef.

Photo: Wibble Roisin

Covering 345,000 square kilometers, it’s the largest living structure on the planet. Changing weather conditions are threatening the existence of reefs around the world, but Nicole McNaughton, Tourism Queensland’s PR project manager, is positive about the outlook:

“…The Great Barrier Reef is one of the largest and healthiest reef systems in the world. While it can cope with stress better than most reefs, the Great Barrier Reef is not immune to climate change.”

Environmental concerns

Rising water temperatures cause coral to expel certain algae, destroying themselves in the process. The dead coral quickly become bleached and start to erode.

I was concerned that further promoting mass fly-in tourism could do more harm than good. Nicole, however, was quick to point out air travel makes up a very small percentage of carbon emissions– around three percent.

Reynaldo Ramos is a civil engineer applying for the Best Job in the World with the handle ““digital environmentalist.” He outlined three activities which impact the marine environment:

1. water-based activities (diving, snorkeling, fishing);

2. marine life interaction (watching of whales, turtles, seabirds, fish feeding);

3. ship/boat-related activities (anchoring, mooring, fishing, racing); and waste generation (liquid and solid wastes from the above activities)

These activities are likely to increase as Queensland heavily promotes the recreational opportunities available.

Green credentials

Ramos emphasized that these problems are not unique to Queensland and that the island ecosystems of his home, the Philippines, are under much greater threat due to large-scale commercial fishing and the illegal use of explosives by fishermen.

Can the winning applicant do anything to mitigate the environmental effects of mass tourism? Ramos believes:

“A six-month contract is not enough to focus on the environmental issues and challenges that this marine ecosystem is facing. But in my own little way, taking advantage of my position as the island caretaker, I will do my best to identify short term strategies to mitigate these impacts for Tourism Queensland; to implement [strategies] towards proper long term management of this heritage site.”

Tourism operations in Queensland do seem to have very respectable “green” credentials. Just under half their tour operators are certified under the Australian ECO system, which promotes guidelines for sustainable travel. This is a higher percentage of certification than any of Australia’s other states.

Marine research is also partly funded through tourism income and marine biologists are directly employed by some companies. Nicole McNaughton emphasises, “By showcasing the Great Barrier Reef to the world, we are actually helping protect it by building a love and respect for what is one of the world’s greatest natural wonders in visitors from around the globe.”

But recent public awareness of environmental issues hasn’t led to the drastic policy changes necessary for determined change.

A missing piece

Photo: spudmurphy

Prior to European colonisation the land and “sea territories” surrounding the Great Barrier Reef were used by over 40 Aborigine and Torres Strait Island groups.

Indigenous Australians have struggled with displacement and institutional discrimination to a much greater extent than neighbouring New Zealand, which was colonised just a little later.

Last year saw the first-ever apology from the Australian government for the atrocities of the Stolen Generation.

One year later, little seems to have improved. There seems to be little direct gain for indigenous groups from the best job in the world. I failed to discover a single mention or image featuring indigenous culture on the Island Reef Job site.

Questioning this, I was told that Tourism Australia,

“encourages the increase of Indigenous people in all facets of tourism in Queensland and to encourage economic and socially sustainable Indigenous tourism ventures. There are a number of indigenous tourism products within the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef region and the successful candidate will have the opportunity to visit many of these and experience indigenous culture first-hand.”

An amazing opportunity…

Whoever wins the best job in the world will be given a very large soap-box from which to speak. We hope they don’t stay silent regarding the urgent issues of the global environment or fair compensation for those who lived amongst the islands for thousands of years before video applications were possible.

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idrewuk

The Best Marketing Ploy In the World

Interactive travel magazines like Matador are establishing a serious online presence, and tourism promotions like the Best Job in the World are garnering thousands of applications. It’s proof that the tourism and promotion game is changing, again.

• Is the best job in the world a competition?
• Is it a job application process?
• Is it a marketer’s wet dream?

Yes.

A win-win situation

There aren’t many people who wouldn’t like a job involving marine recreation on a resort island. Even city slickers might consider it for six months. Throw in something approaching a six-figure salary– and free lodging– it’s a very persuasive package.

Photo: andrewcparnell

But the real genius lies in the huge amount of PR being generated. Gary Arndt, who writes the most popular travelogue-style blog in the world and possesses a background in internet marketing, says, “The whole thing was very clever. The cost of the actual job is trivial.”

While AUD$150,000 sounds like a great six month’s work to me, the investment of the Queensland Tourism Board is minimal… because the publicity it has generated is worth millions.

By forcing candidates to show their knowledge of the Great Barrier Reef, Tourism Queensland has collected an immense amount of quality user-generated content. They couldn’t have bought this coverage if they tried. Every time someone watches an job applicant’s video, they learn something about the area… and that something makes people want to visit.

When viral isn’t bad

In new-media parlance, a campaign has gone “viral” when it grows exponentially and beyond the control of the company who started it. The way top videos have spread, the chatter on Twitter and Facebook, and the websites and blogs of applicants are all indicators of a viral campaign.

Fast-spreading media can bite the hand it feeds, though. One video showed a woman getting a tattoo to prove how committed she was to winning the position. Sharp eyes recognised this as a bogus clip and quickly pounced with hard-hitting headlines.

As suspected, the video was created by a marketing agency. Seeding dummy videos, like reviewing your own products, is considered very bad form.

Realising this, Tourism Queensland responded with an apology on the official site. In the social marketing age, a quick apology can do a lot of good.

Community is king.

Susie Parish is the founder of the Island Reef Job Ning community. It’s a place for applicants to chat, discuss tactics, and share their videos.

Reflected in the tag line, “We need more than 60 seconds to tell our stories,” she started the site because “applicants needed a space where they could say more about themselves.” Over 100 have taken advantage of the platform and more are added daily.

An applicant herself, Parish says, “[Applicants'] friends and family only want to hear so much [about the job]. Within the community, they can talk all they want about it and continue to hope that they will be the chosen one.”

A social web

A niche community is further proof of the power of Tourism Queensland’s campaign and the changes in traditional marketing. Susie makes it simple:

“The social web enables companies to interact with and develop a relationship with their potential customers…They have to interact on [many platforms] or they risk conversations about their company taking place without them or having their competitors do it and be that one step closer to their customer.”

This closely relates to the official view from Tourism Queensland’s PR manager, Nicole McNaughton:

“Travellers these days are placing increasing importance on first-hand reports from other travellers when they choose a holiday. So when Tourism Queensland was looking for an innovative way to promote our new Islands of the Great Barrier Reef campaign, what could be better than having a real and independent traveller based on a Great Barrier Reef island reporting on their personal experience?”

The travel and tourism sector can learn a lot from this campaign. Copycat efforts aren’t the message though. The real gold is in learning to use new media tools in mutually beneficial ways: if the consumer wins, the companies will too.

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