The incident that has sparked the warning occurred last week and involved a young couple that were sleeping in their station wagon at the Five Mountains Holiday Park west of Invercargill.

The 22 year old woman was attacked and raped at knife point and the couple also had a substantial amount of money stolen.

Police have arrested a 25 year-old man in relation to the attack.

Many camping grounds are already fully booked until the end of January. New Zealand Holiday Park Association chief executive Fergus Brown said holiday parks were benefiting from locals choosing to forgo international travel in favour of stay at homes holidays.

Although recent Tourism New Zealand numbers show international visitor arrivals are down 10 per cent on last years figures, camping grounds are believed benefiting from an increase in international visitors who are more cost conscious due to the global economic down turn.

With the New Zealand dollar at near record lows, I find the NZ Holiday Park Association claims of international visitor tightening their expenses a little far fetched.