The new reality of Australians not being able to travel overseas for holidays has inevitably led to a surge in domestic tourism … particularly in the caravanning and motorhoming sector.
While many borders remain closed, it seems that most people in states other than Victoria are happy enough to hit the open road again.
Indeed, it seems grey nomads will be having plenty of new companions in campsites and caravan parks.
There has been a huge spike in demand for both camper rentals, and for new and second-hand caravans.
In the absence of international visitors to Australia, Apollo Tourism and Leisure has been pivoting its van rental focus to the domestic market and says domestic booking revenue is up on average by 38% cent in this country.
Furthermore, Australian RV sales orders taken between May 2020 and July 2020 are said to be up on average by 16% month.
In states like Western Australia which has had a lot of success in keeping Covid-19 cases very low for a long time, high demand has apparently seen prices in second-hand caravans skyrocket … and business is booming.
Mandurah Caravan and RV Centre told the Mandurah Mail newspaper that it has sold over 140 vans in the past three months. To put that in perspective, a regular sales rate would usually see the team sell about 50 over that time frame.
“I’ve been in the business some 30 years and I’ve never seen anything like it,” Mandurah Caravan and RV Centre general manager Grant Wiltshire said. “You could land a plane in our yard at the moment we’ve sold that many.”
Mr Wiltshire said he now found himself selling to people who had never owned a caravan in their life.
“That’s what I can’t believe – just how many people who have never tried this are now taking it up,” he told the Mandurah Mail. “I suppose with no planes in the sky it’s become a pretty popular holiday method, but we never expected it to rise this rapidly.”
The boom in business came as a relief to the WA caravan industry, with many dealerships hit hard during the early stages of the pandemic when travel was pretty much banned.
Mr Wiltshire expects the boom in sales to continue for ‘at least the next 12 months’ with the WA government yet to signal an end date to their hard border stance.
Good luck getting a caravan site if you stay at parks.
Demand will see prices rise considerably making it only available to those that have the resources.
Totally expected.
People will holiday in Oz than overseas
Caravan parks are crowed and they are crying poor, just how greedy are they.
What a pity it takes a pandemic to make aussies holiday and spend their money in their own country.
When we sold our last van it was all set up in the driveway and the fellow reversed in and the van was hooked up .. While everything was being explained he told me that in his 55 years that he had never towed anything (good start).. As he pulled out onto the road turning left, he felt the wheels of his turbo-charged buzz box on the road and he floored it, forgetting the caravan behind… The van bounced down off the drive over the curb hard left and I had never seen the bottom of the van in that much light…I rang him after to see if they made it home… ” Yes it is out on the footpath as we don’t know how to go backwards yet ” the next day they were off to find an empty carpark .
We are still stuck in Victoria ready to take our grandkids to Free Campsites in our Coromal Camper. I have read several times how many people from the Grey Nomads go to free camps and pick up rubbish. Could we investigate one day a year the Grey Nomads have a”Clean up Free Camp Sites Day”? Just a though!