A new report commissioned by the Holiday Accommodation Parks Association of New Zealand (HAPNZ) has shown that travellers staying in holiday parks contribute more than $623 million per year into the New Zealand economy.

Of this national expenditure figure, 55% is contributed to domestic travellers and 45% by international visitors.

The research also highlighted that holiday park visitors spend about 18% of their daily expenditure on accommodation costs which is considerably less than other types of accommodation. This lower daily spend means that a larger part is spent in support of other businesses.

Many holiday parks are located on prime real estate often fronting the ocean, rivers or lakes. This has resulted in many privately owned parks closing to realise underlying value in the land that they occupied. Even council owned parks are facing pressure from local communities for alternative land uses. Most council owned parks are located close to town centres. Growing populations has resulted in many district councils scrutinising other land use alternatives before committing to lease renewals.

It is now common to visit many costal resort towns in New Zealand to find that a new housing subdivision sits where once stood a holiday park. It is clear that this important sector of New Zealand’s accommodation industry is facing lage headwinds.

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.