A sticker on the back of a tradie's ute on the Gold Coast summed it up. Across a blue map of Australia in crisp white letters is stamped "We're full - piss off".
That's the kind of message that makes the man at the helm of Australia's largest tourism conference being held in Hobart this week blanch.
Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC) managing director Matt Hingerty said it would be disastrous for the tourism industry to blur the line between the population growth debate and incoming visitors.
"Australia's tourism image has been based on us being open, welcoming and friendly," Mr Hingerty said at the ATEC Backpackers and Youth Industry Conference in Hobart on Tuesday.
Mr Hingerty said part of his job is making sure any debate about Australia's population will have no impact on the tourism industry.
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"If a backpacker stays here for six months they're responsible for nearly $25,000 worth of expenditure," he said.
"They bring so much money into the economy, they circulate it around, they take it from the capital cities to the regional centres where it's desperately needed, particularly in remote centres.
"But also who could imagine Sydney, or St Kilda, the Gold Coast, Brisbane or Darwin and Cairns without the backpacker industry?
"They're a very important and unheralded part of what we are as a nation, and we must never allow them to be included in the debate about population."
The conference continues.
