Hawaii Tourism wants to pay an ‘Aloha Apprentice’ $1000 to hand out lei greetings to Aussies

HOW would you like to make $1000 for less than a day’s work, plus a four-day trip to Hawaii valued at $8000?

AS THE winter cold sets in, Hawaii’s local tourism agency is launching a “job hunt” for someone with a sunny disposition to hand out traditional lei greetings to Aussie commuters.

Hawaii Tourism Oceania is offering the “Aloha Apprentice” $1000 for a day’s work handing out 500 leis later this month — and will throw in a four-day, $8000 trip to Hawaii for the successful applicant to take a cultural crash course beforehand.

“Presenting a lei greeting is a very important part of Hawaiian culture. It’s part of what aloha means,” said Giselle Radulovic, country manager for Hawaii Tourism Oceania. “It’s such a unique philosophy, you really need to go to Hawaii to experience it.”

Applicants for the role, which went live on jobs website Airtasker on Tuesday, must have a valid Australian passport and be available to travel to the US. The four-day “aloha immersion” trip will take place on May 18, followed by the lei greeting task on May 25.

“We really need them to tell us in 25 to 50 words why you would make the perfect Aloha Apprentice,” she said.

“It’s going to come down to creativity. We want to get the right person. Somebody who is keen to embrace and learn about aloha, to learn about Hawaiian culture, somebody who has a fairly flexible schedule and a caring, open-minded attitude.”

But she said there would not be a lot of time for lying on the beach on the Hawaii trip, which includes surf lessons on Waikiki Beach, a ukulele lesson, a hiking excursion to Kilauea volcano and cooking lessons with a local chef.

“They will busy,” she said.

The lei greeting task will take place in a major city CBD, depending on where the successful applicant is based.

“It will take a full day’s work, at least six or seven hours, that’s why we’re also paying them $1000 for their time,” she said.

Ms Radulovic said Airtasker was chosen because it was a “one-of-a-kind role and Airtasker is known as a platform where you can find people with a variety of unique skills”.

“We can also make sure we’re using the right person because we can see the reviews if they’ve performed other tasks,” she said.

Last year, more than 390,000 tourists from Australia and New Zealand headed to Hawaii, with the majority coming from Australia. In the first quarter of 2018, Australian visitor arrivals increased by 5.6 per cent on the same time a year ago to 67,728.

The “Aloha Apprentice” has echoes of Tourism Queensland’s “Best Job in the World” campaign, which offered the winning candidate a six-month role as “caretaker” for the Great Barrier Reef Islands. That campaign attracted more than 35,000 applications.

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Originally published as Hawaii Tourism wants to pay an ‘Aloha Apprentice’ $1000 to hand out lei greetings to Aussies