A ‘cultural shift’ in the way Australians holiday looks set to ensure a boom in caravan park occupancy for many months to come.
While there has been much speculation that the opening of international borders and the spike in fuel prices would dampen the Covid-inspired camping surge, bookings for Easter and beyond suggest this won’t be the case … at least not yet!
Matt Lang, the chief operating officer of Discovery Parks, which operates 85 holiday parks across Australia, told the InDaily publication that the outlook was extremely positive … despite some initial concerns over the Omicron wave.
“About six weeks ago there was a bit of hesitancy about people making plans – and there’s still some of that in the market – but that’s starting to wane now,” he said. “Generally, in the industry there’s quite a bit of optimism and now that there are high vaccination rates and the borders are open, we are also starting to see people book from interstate.”
The surge in sale of caravans, four-wheel-drive vehicles and camping equipment over the last two years means that there are still plenty of people keen to hit the highways and byways.
“There’s still quite a bit of pent-up demand from being basically locked down for two years and people are looking to travel,” Mr Lang said. “People are still waiting for caravans to be delivered to them so I think there has been a cultural shift and people have connected again and are doing things that they might have done when they were younger.”
He said there was confidence that the outlook would remain positive for at least the rest of the year.
“When we look at our forward outlook – not just Easter and the school holidays but for four or five months – we are looking quite strong compared to the prior year,” Lang said. “A lot of people have invested in four-wheel-drives and caravans and they are looking to be on the road.”
