If Queenstown's impending "schoolies" trips gain popularity, one tour operator is proposing the addition of career sessions to attract the young visitors back to work or study.
Australian high school pupils celebrating the end of their final exams, and the week-long, 30,000-person parties that ensue, are both known as "schoolies". The parties have become known for binge drinking, drug use and violence.
Next month, about 100 young people are expected to arrive in the resort on package tours and one company running "Queenstown Schoolies" tours has promised to ensure good behaviour.
Cutting Edge Adventures Australia director Tim Jones earlier this week said he had no intention of encouraging the riotous behaviour which had marred the Gold Coast event last November and was instead offering an adventure-based experience.
If this year's trial run of 40-48 visitors goes well, not only could the tours be held over two or three weeks, catering for "a couple of hundred people" each, but they could incorporate career sessions aimed at attracting the schoolies back for jobs.
"It's definitely something we want to work on," Mr Jones said yesterday.
"We are thinking of organising a meeting with the Queenstown Resort College [QRC] and tourism operators such as NZSki, so the kids could sit down or go through a little bit of a trade show, learning how to get involved with the industry or hospitality."
QRC chief executive Charlie Philips said the idea had potential.
"If their motivation for coming here is development, and not just getting drunk, then we are interested. It sounds well intended and it's certainly something we would be keen to be a part of, if it ticks all of the boxes."
