On International Youth Day (12 August 2026), we celebrate over 50 years of the Working Holiday Maker Program – a scheme that has been fostering stronger links between young people from Australia and around the world since 1975. This reciprocal cultural exchange program between Australia and 50 countries enables young adults from eligible partner countries to undertake work while having an extended holiday, filling temporary labour gaps and contributing to the visitor economy, particularly supporting regional areas.

Story by Silke Kerwick | Secretary, BYTAP

Many of us may have done a Working Holiday ourselves (either overseas, or in Australia if we’re not originally from here), or know others who have, or would like to. What began as a limited youth mobility exchange program in 1975 between just two nations (Australia and the UK) has now expanded to 50 countries on nearly every continent (bar Africa and Antarctica -yet!). It allows young adults aged 18-30 (or up to 35 for some nationalities) to have a 12-month holiday in Australia, during which they can undertake short-term work or study. The program covers two visa subclasses, the Working Holiday (subclass 417) visa and the Work and Holiday (subclass 462) visa, with options to extend for a second and potentially even third year, normally subject to doing specified work in regional areas for between 3-6 months (although Brits are able to apply for up to 3 years without that requirement due to a Free Trade Agreement).

From its inception through to today, the program has continuously evolved, from initially just including Anglophone countries such as the UK/Ireland, and later North America, through to Asia, then mainland Europe and eventually to some South American countries (see map of current participating countries). There are now over 300,000 Working Holiday Maker visas granted annually (source: Department of Home Affairs of Australia, 2026). These young people disperse widely throughout regional Australia and have a higher-than-average length of stay, often working casual jobs in areas of need to supplement their travel funds, that ultimately enables them to explore even more of Australia.

Figure 2. Australia’s WHM Program: Partner countries as of October 2024. Source: Barry, K. & Azaredo, R., The tourism-migration nexus: working holiday visa (2025) Tourism Geographies pp. 1–17. doi: 10.1080/14616688.2025.2506523 (p.11)

The Working Holiday Maker program forms part of the overall youth tourism sector that is vital to Australian tourism. The youth sector contributes 27 per cent of all visitor arrivals to Australia and 45 per cent of all visitor spend. There were 2.4 million youth visitors to Australia in 2019 who spent $20 billion (source: Tourism Australia, 2026). Many Working Holiday Makers also return to Australia, increasing their lifetime value, and they are classified as ‘High Yielding Travellers’ by Tourism Australia (source: Tourism Australia Tourism 2035 ten-year strategic plan). Plus, they encourage visitation by friends and relatives, as well as generating a lot of positive publicity for Australia, particularly through social media

Looking ahead, there is scope to streamline policies across participating countries and expand the program to new partners. Because the program is reciprocal, this would also give more young Aussies the opportunity to pack their bags and enjoy a Working Holiday in an even wider range of destinations around the world!

For more information see

BYTAP, 2026

www.bytap.org – Proudly supported by Youth Tourism NSW www.youthtourismnsw.org.au, Youth Tourism Victoria www.ytv.org.au and Adventure Queensland www.adventurequeensland.com.au

Department of Home Affairs of Australia, 2026

https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/what-we-do/whm-program/overview

https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/research-and-stats/files/working-holiday-report-june-25.PDF

https://data.gov.au/data/en/dataset/visa-working-holiday-maker

Tourism Australia, 2026

https://www.tourism.australia.com/en/about/industry-sectors/youth.html

https://www.australia.com/en/youth-travel/working-holiday-visa.html

www.tourism.australia.com/en/news-and-events/news/tourism-australia-releases-new-strategy.html