Rich Keam, 34, from Brighton, who has secured a job which will see him eat his way around Western Australia working as a taste master. Photo: PA

An American finance graduate, a Brazilian travel photographer, an Irish internet entrepreneur, a French tourism graduate, an English film costume designer and a Canadian adventure tour guide have beaten off more than 330,000 competitors from 196 countries to be awarded Tourism Australia’s Best Jobs in the World.

A seventh job was awarded by Virgin Australia to Cameron Ernst from the US, who will fly the length and breadth of the country as the airline’s new ‘High Flyer’, championing Australia’s best customer service experiences.

The 18 finalists in Tourism Australia’s global competition have spent the past week in Australia undertaking a series of adventure, nature-based, culinary, social media and photography challenges and assessments, as part of a rigorous final selection process.

Tourism Australia managing director Andrew McEvoy said the competition had been extremely tough, but that all of the finalists deserved great credit for their performances.

“I’d like to congratulate all of the 18 finalists for the tremendous enthusiasm and effort they have put into this competition. The successful candidates each demonstrated incredible talent, energy and desire throughout the application process and will, I’m sure, take these positive attributes into the job with them,” Mr McEvoy said.