Backpackers returning despite sky high airfares

Backpacker numbers could return to normal by Christmas if airfares come back down to earth.

Back packers Teresita Calvo, 22, Felix Burdzik, 24, and Ines Marin Murillo, 22, at Bondi Beach on Sunday. Picture: Adam Yip

Backpackers are trickling back into the country - and filling desperately needed job vacancies - despite astronomical airfares from key international tourism markets.

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Tourism chairman John Hart said backpacker numbers were at about 60 per cent of pre-Covid levels and could return to normal by Christmas if airfares came back down to earth.

About 50,000 backpackers offshore had visas approved but hadn’t yet arrived in the country, he said. The three-month lag from when visas were granted to when the traveller arrived was often because they couldn’t find a flight they could afford.

“If they all arrived, we’d be looking closer to pre-Covid levels,” Mr Hart said. “It’s really taken a while to get the flow of visas and flow of backpackers back into the country.”

Visa processing staff were working through the backlog of visas, he said.

At Bondi Beach, expensive flights, $400 per week hostel beds and grey skies hadn’t deterred many international backpackers venturing Down Under.

Spanish native Ines Marin Murillo, 22, has only been in the country a week but got a job at a Rocks cafe less than two hours after applying.

Ms Marin Murillo is taking a gap year between her undergraduate engineering degree and her masters degree to improve her English and see the natural wonders of Australia.

She was also drawn to the country’s reputation as an “international” hub where she could meet people from all over the world.

Industrial engineering student Teresita Calvo, 22, from Argentina, who has been in the country for almost three weeks, plans to spend the next year working and travelling.

“I wanted to come because you have the weather like in Argentina and I wanted to save money because I was very exhausted because of my job and my studies in Argentina. So just to save money and travel after that.”

She is loving it so far.

“It’s great. I like the beaches. I like that the beaches are close to the city. That doesn’t happen in Argentina.”

Simon Harkham, who operated Noah’s Bondi Backpackers until earlier this month when the building changed hands, said most hostels were at about 75 or 80 per cent capacity, even though a number of venues didn’t make it through the pandemic.

But he said there was a “high demand” and he was hopeful hostels would be full by New Years.

Mr Harkham said the huge backlog of visas was slowing their arrival down. “We are missing out on a lot of people,” he said.