Grey nomads are on the march northwards
While the threat of Covid remains, the tourist season in Australia’s north looks set to be completely unrecognisable from 2020’s ‘wipeout’.
With grey nomads and other travellers looking to leave the winter chill behind them, towns like Alice Springs are experiencing a boom.
The owner of the G’Day Mate Caravan Park, Bill Wilcox, told the ABC that the signs were hugely encouraging.
“We’re pleasantly surprised by the numbers that have arrived from all over Australia and it’s certainly a great improvement on what we went through last year,” he said. “We’re getting to the stage where we’d be trying to encourage anybody who is coming to Alice Springs to book accommodation in advance … just turning up at any of the parks in town and expecting a site may not be a given.”
With international borders expected to remain closed until at least the middle of next year, Mr Wilcox told the ABC he was not expecting things to let up any time soon.
“There are quite a number of people who are experiencing road travel in Australia for the first time, they’ve normally flown overseas,” he said. “I’ve got to say we’ve got more and more people here in their early to mid-fifties who might be retired or are taking their long service leave stretched out and traveling around for a bit longer.”
And it’s not just caravan parks that are benefitting from the traveller influx.
Apparently, hats are in high demand in Alice Springs at the moment … and so are organised bushwalks.
Isabelle Hardinge, an operations manager for World Expeditions in Alice Springs told the ABC that multi-day bushwalks – particularly on the famous Larapinta Trail = were hot property.
“We’ve got a massive amount of bookings … and we’ve had long waiting lists for all of our tours,” she said. “We’ve definitely seen a big boom in the domestic tourism market since international tourism is obviously shut down for now.”
Yes unbelievable numbers in Cairns Cardwell Townsville Mareeba. Great to see so many domestic visitors
Great to see caravanners are on the move and caravan parks are getting fuller by the minute. I just wonder if councils have put in place plans for overflow parks as getting a caravan park booking above the 26th parallel before October 2021 especially in NT and WA is getting near impossible.
We generally don’t book ahead, following the bonnet as our fancy dictates. With the exception of Broome, have always managed to find somewhere…sometimes 2nd or 3rd or 4th choice! But this year, did book FNQ three months ahead … and it wasn’t easy. One place had one spot left.
We are here at the Gday c/van pk in Alice Springs for the last 3 days and when one bay leaves it is quickly filled. We were lucky that we booked as another 2 in front of us at the reception were told to find another.
Day 23 on our trip. Seems like an armada of caravans, camper trailers, 4wd’s and wagons a couple of push bikes with one vehicle accompanying.loaded motor bikes with pillion passengers… Jon’s available at every stop so far at every caravan park we have stayed at and other businesses same town or village. Great that these places are benefiting $$$. Currently heading west, leaving Kununurra tomorrow, next stop BB’s caravan park and Purnululu NP. Then Fitzroy Crossing , Derby then Broome for 3 months.