Australian couple to raffle off Micronesian island resort for £38

53,000 raffle tickets have been sold to people from all over the globe

The Kosrae Nautilus Resort. (Nautilus Resort)

The owners of a tropical island resort have decided to raffle it off, after more than 53,000 tickets were bought by people all over the world.

The winner of the Kosrae Nautilus Resort, including its restaurant, scuba-diving business and hotel rooms, will be announced on Tuesday.

The island of Kosrae, about 3800km from Brisbane, is part of the Federated States of Micronesia in the Pacific Ocean and home to about 6,500 people.

Australian couple Doug and Sally Beitz, who moved to the Micronesian island of Kosrae in 1994 with their three young children, revealed the raffle would go ahead after they sold 3,000 tickets more than their 50,000 minimum. Tickets cost £38.

One lucky winner will own the Kosrae Nautilus Resort, pictured.

The resort has 16 hotel rooms, a 70-seat restaurant, two dive boats, eight rental cars and a four-bedroom house for the manager.

It employs 16 full-time staff and is debt-free. It can be reached by flying directly from Guam and Hawaii.

Mr Beitz told local news agencies that selling the island online was the only viable option as their nearest real estate agent is 1,000km away.

He said previously that the family decided to raffle off the property so their home could go to ordinary people like them.

"We look at ourselves as everyday people – we weren't highly educated people when we came here, just average, basic people," he said.

The couple were high-school drop outs who had no training in how to run a resort when they started.

"We think, with the raffle, we can hopefully leave the island in the hands of someone who's not a millionaire, but in the hands of someone who's just like us."

The couple’s 30-year-old son Adam thought up the unusual way of selling the family business.

He told News.com.au previously that the family had been overwhelmed by the interest the raffle had generated.

"We always knew this would do well, but we could have never predicted the hundreds of emails addressed to mum and dad from people all over the world telling them how much their story has inspired them and how wonderful the idea is,” he said.