Northern sunshine lured grey nomads in huge numbers
Thank you grey nomads! It’s the message echoing up and down the country as evidence mounts that number of mature-aged caravanners and motorhomers on the road is absolutely booming.
Experts say that a weaker Australian dollar and a cold winter in the south has brought large numbers of grey nomads north, bringing with them a huge boost to regional economies.
In Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, for example, winter occupancy rates at the council’s six holiday parks for the past three months have been the best for a number of years.
A council spokesman told the Sunshine Coast Daily that the average occupancy was up 2% on 2014 which in itself was a good year. The average occupancy for June was 67% as grey nomads begin arriving – 3% more than the same month in 2014.
July and August were the busiest months with 88% and 90% average occupancy respectively, an improvement of between 1.6% and 2% on 2014.
The spokesman said there had been a trend for southern visitors to arrive earlier this year and the majority had departed by the end of August to head home.
“It’s really pleasing that our great holiday parks, which have undergone some significant improvements over the past five years, are seeing more and more visitors,” the spokesman told the Sunshine Coast Daily. “There are also more and more vans on the road bringing more and more retirees to our region.”
