Great Barrier Reef 'dream job' not fake, assures Tourism Queensland

Melbourne, Jan 20 (ANI): Tourism Queensland has assured that the Great Barrier Reef "dream job" is real despite attracting criticism for publicising a fake applicant.

The tourism officials have admitted that the video of a woman getting a tattoo in order to win the 'dream job' was fake - insisting it was a lapse in judgement of posting it without any indication.

The video showed an Australian woman "Tegan" getting a tattoo to showcase her passion for the Great Barrier Reef, in a bid to land the six-month, 150,000 dollars job, who is otherwise an employee of the ad agency behind the campaign.

The six-month stint will require the successful applicant to bunk in a luxury villa, explore neighbouring islands, swim, snorkel, discover wildlife, and the locals.

"We messed up," News.com.au quoted Anthony Hayes, Tourism Queensland's Chief Executive Officer as saying.

"We should have put the word 'sample' on it and we've now removed it so that there's no confusion attached to it at all.

"Due to the whole "dream job" concept being so unique, Tourism Queensland didn't predict the problems that posting the video would cause," he added.

Hayes said Tourism Queensland is not worried about any negative responses to the video.

"The positive response we've had to the campaign has just been absolutely overwhelming," he said.

"This is new for us. We've never done anything like this before... we'll hopefully not mess up anymore.

"1.8 million people have visited the website and we've had six and a half thousand applications in a week so we're very pleased with how the campaign's going" he added. (ANI)