The number of grey nomads heading up into Tropical North Queensland continues to surge.
The National Visitor Survey reveals that domestic drive visitors increased by 12% to 1.04 million for the year ending June 2017 … and the delighted tourism authorities know who to thank.
“The grey nomads continue to dominate the drive sector, especially during winter when they want to enjoy our warm tropical weather,” Tourism Tropical North Queensland chief executive, Pip Close, told the Cairns Post. “Drive is important in dispersing visitors throughout our region with benefits flowing throughout the economy as people buy fuel, shop for groceries and make repairs to their vehicles.”
Tourism Tropical North Queensland says a growing number of the visitors heading north are Queenslanders exploring their own state, with intrastate visitation to the state’s tropical north up by 6.2%.
The encouraging statistics come despite the ongoing concerns of some long-term travellers.
“Caravan parks are becoming much more expensive and offer resort-style accommodation, which isn’t what most are looking for,” John Fletcher, the president of the Campervan Club of Queensland told the Cairns Post. “I think local councils need to be more proactive in getting RVs to their locality … it’s worthwhile putting in things where you can park close to the centre of the city, free camps or access to showgrounds.”
While acknowledging that Cairns was ‘without fail’ a must-visit destination among caravanners and motorhomers, Mr Fletcher said travellers’ concerns should be listened to.
“I think there are good facilities up there, but you do get a lot of people who are naysayers, who if there isn’t something exactly to their liking, they dismiss it,” he said. “A lot of traditional caravan parks are in sites for redevelopment too and are being swallowed up by development.”
We loved our time in Cairns and the Tablelands. We would love to go again and spend more time in the area but we found the caravan parks too expensive. We don’t have a bathroom in our van so cant free camp for long. More parks with simple, clean amenities, level sites, with visiting bird and wild life would be my choice – oh, and free wifi!
Not much chance of the Cairns City Council opening up the Showgrounds, as it was the Regions Caravan Parks who got together in 2009/10 and Whinged to the Council crying “Hard Done By” with the grounds and one other Free camp at Gordonvale that Closed them down to travellers.
Hi gordanvale free camp is still opened
Love to vist cairns last time we stayed at babinda and drove to cairns, as there were no free sites or alternatives to caravan parks which we do not need there resort style amenities,
On my recent trip through Qld, I mostly stayed at cheaper caravan parks in more out of the way places. I enjoyed all the places I visited on the inland road (up to Blackall) and spent lots and saw & did lots in those towns. The tablelands were interesting and mostly reasonable in price and I especially liked Herberton and Ravenshoe. I drove straight through Cairns due to the ridiculous prices. Mostly, if you stay clear of cities, especially the coastal ones, the prices aren’t too bad and most of us are on some kind of a budget. It’s a shame that they are so greedy and have priced themselves out of most of the Grey Nomad market.