Demand for campsites at South Australia’s national parks has surged. PIC: SA Department for Environment and Water
A lot has changed for grey nomads in the 12 months since the pandemic turned the Big Lap on its head.
They’ve been abruptly told to ‘go home’, they’ve had to park up their rigs for months at a time, and they’ve been ‘caught out’ by fast-closing state borders.
Now, although the Covid-19 picture is generally looking a little brighter, long-term travellers are still having to get used to new things … and one of those is a lot more company! It seems that, with international travel off the table for the foreseeable future, the great Aussie road trip is very much back on the agenda.
This surge in interest has seen sales of caravans, campervans and 4WD accessories soar. As an example of what’s going on, the recent Gold Coast Caravan and Outdoor Expo had record crowds with an increase of 30% on the previous best.
Caravan manufacturer Jayco has had to hire hundreds of extra staff to try to keep up with demand.
“The grey nomad market has always been quite strong, but recently we have seen an increase across all segments … particularly couples and the younger adventure market which are people in the 25-35 age range,” said Jayco national sales manager, Scott Jones. “We have seen a significant increase in sales across both new and used RVs, with new people coming into the market that may not have considered caravanning before.”
Data compiled by Tourism Research Australia last month revealed that 77% of Queenslanders surveyed planned to drive to their destination on holidays this year. And campsite bookings at national parks across the country is off the charts.
In South Australia, they were up by nearly 80% in December 2020, compared to the same month the previous year. The biggest jump in camping numbers was at the Riverland’s Murray River National Park, which recorded an extraordinary 200% rise in bookings.
Interestingly, this is far from an Australia-only phenomenon. In the US state of Michigan, for example, the booking system was flooded with more than 212,000 campsite requests in the first five minutes of it opening for the northern summer season.
Jeremy Spell, central reservations system analyst for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, said getting a campsite was ‘kind of like winning the lottery’.
“We have seen an absolute explosion of reservations and use at our state parks, our campgrounds, day-use areas, anywhere,” he said. “Anything to do with the outdoors is huge right now.”
We’re currently on the road and have been since July. We do like to free camp where possible. It is hard work finding a site in some places and we have had to stay in overflow areas in some towns where all of their parks are full. We also prefer out of town options and have stayed on dairy farms, sheep stations and horse ranch. Definitely seeing an increase as the weather is cooling and meeting lots of families with young children doing the lap. Very exciting times for us all no matter what your age.
Not yet
I’m planning a solo trip come July. It appears the horizon for planning ahead may become very difficult.
Should one grab a spot and hold up for an extended period? Or just wing it.
Just wing it Phillip. Stay west of the great divide & you’ll be right. The southern city slickers don’t venture far from the coast.
no , not really. i think most of the congestion must be on the east coast. we are in central qld. at the most beautiful Gemfields in Sapphire. no one here.
Travelling north from SA in May & have already booked a tour in Longreach as they said they are beginning to fill up. I’m expecting everywhere to be pretty crowded.
Definitely busier, was very hard to get a powered site from Grafton down to Hat Head 2 weeks ago, lucky we are self sufficient with solar etc. and had no problem getting non powered sites.