New data from Caravan Industry Association of Australia has revealed Australia’s domestic caravan and camping visitor economy continues to break records.
The data revealed total nights spent caravan and camping increased by 9% to reach a record 54.8 million for the year ending September 2018.
This represented 15% of all nights spent in accommodation around Australia.
The data also revealed 12.6 million overnight trips were recorded for the year ending September 2018, marking a 7.4% increase from the previous year.
Growth was experienced across all states and territories, with Queensland witnessing the most significant increase of 23% in nights and 12.4% in visitors. This growth can be largely attributed to the removal of a low March 2017 quarter due to Cyclone Debbie which impacted visitation to the state and highlights that the state’s caravan and camping visitor economy has positively rebounded.
Growth in the domestic caravan and camping industry continues to outpace the national visitor economy, where total overnight trips grew by 7% to reach 102.7 million and nights grew by 6% to 368 million.
While all age sectors experienced growth for year end September 2018, it was the 20 to 29 year segment that performed the strongest, increasing by 16% (300,000 visitors) on the previous year. The 30 to 54 segments also increased by 300,000 visitors, up 5%.
The 55+ market continues to represent the second largest, with 3.7 million visitors recorded for the period, up 6%.
The research also examined popular activities and found that over 6.5 million caravan and camping domestic visitors ate out at a restaurant or cafe, making it the most preferred activity. Other popular activities included going to the beach (4.4m) and sightseeing (4.2m). These choices of activity not only highlight the interests of many caravan and campers, but also demonstrates the value that caravan and camping has in connecting Australians to nature-based experiences in our beautiful country.
Article courtesy of the Caravan Industry Association of Australia.
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17 January 2019
