New generation of road travellers overtakes grey nomads

[Kit Kat]

COUPLES, families and international travellers have overtaken grey nomads as the most frequent visitors at Queensland's tourist and holiday parks, according to Caravanning Queensland.

Chief executive Ron Chapman said it signalled the arrival of a new generation of road travellers.

He said the freedom, flexibility and affordability of touring holidays have seen growing numbers of couples, particularly between the ages of 25 and 40, and young families hitting the road to explore their own backyard.

Figures also showed that almost one in 10 international tourists now spend at least one night of their Australian stay in a tourist and holiday park.

Mr Chapman said today's tourist and holiday parks were modern, convenient and entertaining destinations offering an ideal base to explore some of Queensland's best attractions.

"Some tourist and holiday parks have invested significant amounts of money to completely transform themselves and attract the couples and young families, as well as the 'grey nomads'," he said.

"This means many tourist and holiday parks now feature a range of accommodation, from tent and caravan sites through to deluxe cabins, as well as playgrounds, pools, sports facilities and organised holiday activities.

"The diverse mix of today's road travellers shows that a holiday on the road is more appealing than ever before.

Today, there are about 475,000 caravans, motorhomes and camper trailers registered in Australia, with 115,000 registered in Queensland alone.

Source: Fraser Coast Chronicle. Read more here:
http://www.frasercoastchronicle.com.au/ ... a/1850666/

[Greynomad]

visitors at Queensland's tourist and holiday parks, according to Caravanning Queensland.

Meanwhile, all us Grey Nomads are out there, free-camping,
and avoiding the high cost of a night in a CP, complete with its jumping pillows, games rooms with WIIs, screaming kids and all the other crap we don't need/want!
And mostly with a cabin-to-caravan~m/h site ratio of 25:1!

A somewhat skewed and self-serving survey, methinks.

[T1 Terry]

It's something that could be used back against the CP mob complaining about the grey nomads not wanting to stop at their caravan parks. We aren't complaining about the tourists going there, what if the hotelliers lobby group was to start the same action against the caravan park mob as they started on free campers? They want their cake and eat it too, maybe we should stir the hotelliers and motel chains up into action against the caravan park mob, give them a taste of their own medicine.
It's good to see the councils are now fighting back and starting to inforce some of the rules they had let the caravan park mob flant for so long.

[generdawg]

It's good to see the councils are now fighting back ...

I know for a fact that some of the locals are fighting their councils desire to close our favourite (as in yours and mine Terry) meeting sight - the one with tiles and hot water tap showers.

I always let the businesses know that it is because of the camp site that I spend money in town. Just two months ago I kept hearing, "we are fighting the council on their efforts to close it".

Some of this mess comes from local governments being in the red ink, so they are looking at or being forced to amalgamate to minimise cost. The problem must be blindingly obvious (oxymoron) because it doesn't work and will be more costly in the long run to reinstate the previous set up of local government for local conditions!

dawg