SYDNEY. Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- The soon to be imposed backpacker tax in Australia is slowly turning away would be interested working holidaymakers to Queensland, the state government has said.
Queensland State Minister for Tourism Kate Jones in a statement on Monday said the latest international visitor data showed the proposed tax was already turning backpackers away even months before it was introduced.
"Since the tax was announced we have seen working visa holiday visitor nights down by close to 9 percent in Queensland," Jone said.
"In the year to June 2016, Queensland recorded 12.3 million backpacker visitor nights down from 13.5 million in the 12 months to June 2015."
"We also saw the total number of backpackers visiting Queensland drop from 338,000 to 331,000 over the same period," she said.
Jones said the state had a risk of losing its backpackers which was worth more than 900 million Australian dollars (677 million U.S. dollars) to the Queensland economy if the idea of having a backpacker tax was not ditched by the federal government.
"As long as the Turnbull Government continue to dither with this tax, backpackers will choose other destinations like New Zealand and Canada," Jones said.
"It doesn't make sense to slug backpackers with a new tax when their contribution to regional economies is so important," she said.
The backpacker tax is set to be introduced in Australia nationwide on Jan. 1, 2017.
