As the autumn chill begins to bite, Aussies with a winning smile might consider saying aloha to a job offer from across the Pacific.
Hawaii Tourism Oceania is launching a hunt for a sunny-natured Australian ambassador to help greet visitors from Down Under.
The Aloha Apprentice will be rewarded with $1000 for a day’s work handing out 500 traditional lei greetings later this month.
The successful applicant must, though, endure a four-day, $8000 trip to Hawaii 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 of 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 the Airtasker website 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 they would make the perfect Aloha Apprentice,” said Giselle.
“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.”
Giselle warned there would be little time for lying around on a beach during the Hawaii trip, which includes a punishing schedule of 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.
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 mirrors Tourism Queensland’s ‘Best Job in the World’ campaign, which offered the winning candidate a six-month role as caretaker for islands in the Great Barrier Reef. That campaign attracted more than 35,000 applications.
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