Jess Liddy, Yorke Peninsula Country Times
Caravan and camping holidays are on the rise despite economic uncertainty.
Caravan and camping are the number one provider of nights for vacations in Australia during the March quarter, with 90 per cent of trips taken in regional areas.
Yorke Peninsula Tourism chairperson Criag Costello said Yorke Peninsula remained a destination of choice, even in tougher economic times, due to its proximity to the city.
“There have certainly been caravans and campers still visiting YP through the winter months,” he said.
“We are starting to see a return to visitation numbers being at more pre-Covid levels during the off season.
“I would still anticipate we will see extremely strong visitor numbers to the region when the peak season commences from the October long weekend.”
Mr Costello said, despite the drop over the cooler months, tourism on YP was performing well.
“The latest data shows visitor expenditure currently at $354 million which is 22 per cent above the 2025 Regional Visitor Strategy target of $289m,” he said.
“This is an incredible result for our region and shows we are an extremely valuable contributor to the greater overall South Australian tourism visitor economy.”
Wallaroo’s Laura Daniel and Jayden Robins have spent six months travelling Australia in their caravan.
They said, due to the rising cost of living and difficulties finding housing, they thought more people had resorted to travel as it was cheaper to buy a caravan than have a mortgage.
“Also, due to the uncertainty of the economic crisis, people are more willing to pack up and go and home-school kids rather than have the finanical burden of owning a home,” they said.
“On our travels pretty much everything was fully booked, we were told just to wing it but found this extremely hard as so many people are now on the road and travelling.
“We had difficulties getting into certain popular areas so would have to go inland on weekends rather than following the coast.”
Numbers show a strong surge
Figures for the March quarter showed a strong surge in travel numbers with people embarking on 4.5 million trips (up 24 per cent) and 18 million nights (up 22 per cent) spent caravanning and camping.
This takes the rolling annual figures to 15.5 million trips, 62.3 million nights and $11.2 billion in visitor expenditure, which far surpass the 2019 pre-Covid figures of 14 million trips and 59 million nights.
Caravan Industry Association of Australia CEO Stuart Lamont said growth in the industry was always great to see but, in the face of uncertain economic times, these numbers demonstrated the strength of the sector’s customer offerings and its value for money.
“We’re continuing to see Australians’ love affair with their country grow, spending more and more time in our beautiful regional and rural towns,” Mr Lamont said.
This article appeared in the Yorke Peninsula Country Times, 25 July 2023.
