Holiday parks key to sustainable tourism growth across New Zealand’s regions

New insight shows holiday parks are key to growing tourism sustainably in the regions, according to Holiday Parks Association of New Zealand Chief Executive Fergus Brown.

Releasing the new quarterly key insight infographic, produced for HPANZ by Angus & Associates*, Brown highlighted that guests staying at holiday parks contribute more than $1.1 billion annually in direct expenditure in local communities, supporting jobs and businesses.

Brown stated “holiday parks provide a high percentage of guest nights in regions across the country, from Northland to Central Otago, and they have plenty of capacity to take more visitors.”

The insight measures the health of the holiday park sector across a range of factors, including guest nights by region, community spend, demand by market (domestic and international), seasonality, and share of accommodation compared with hotels, motels and backpackers.

Key findings for the July 2018 quarter include:

• Regions where holiday parks capture the highest percentage of guest nights are Coromandel (59%), Central Otago (50%), Kapiti-Horowhenua (48%), Gisborne (44%) and Northland (40%).
• 21% of international and domestic visitor guest nights are spent in holiday parks (8.2 million), compared with 36% in hotels (14.2 million), 31% in motels (12.4 million) and 13% in backpackers (5.2 million).
• While staying at holiday parks, guests contribute over $1.1 billion annually in direct expenditure to local communities - approximately 53% from domestic travellers and 47% from international travellers.
• Domestic visitors tend to stay longer at a holiday park than international visitors, are more likely to be repeat visitors and middle aged, whereas international visitors tend to be younger and first time park visitors.
• Almost half of international holiday park guests are travelling in a campervan.
• 25% of international guests come from Australia, 16% from Germany and 15% from the UK.

Brown says evidence supporting the value of holiday parks to local communities will be welcomed by the sector and is very timely, with over several hundred park people travelling to Hamilton this week for the annual Holiday Parks Conference and Awards (running from 24th to 26th July).

Click here to download Holiday Parks - Key Insights, July 2018

*Angus & Associates is a premier supplier of marketing, research and strategic planning services. They are focused on delivering informed insights for a range of private and public sector clients, particularly within the tourism and leisure sectors. 

15th June 2018 - NEW ZEALAND GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCES TOURISM TAX DETAILS

10th May 2018 - PREDICTED TOURISM BOOM COULD PUSH NEW ZEALAND’S INFRASTRUCTURE TO BREAKING POINT 

20th February 2018 - REGIONAL TOURISM NEW ZEALAND CALLS FOR COUNCILS TO BACK TOURISM 

8th April 2017 - HOLIDAY PARKS SECTOR WORTH OVER $1 BILLION TO NEW ZEALAND’S ECONOMY

27th June 2016 - BIGGEST SUMMER EVER FORECAST FOR NEW ZEALAND HOLIDAY PARKS

5th May 2016 - COMMITMENT TO IMPROVE FREEDOM CAMPING MANAGEMENT

28th December 2015 - MAJOR INVESTMENTS IN NEW ZEALAND HOLIDAY PARKS

12th September 2014 - AUCKLAND ZOO AWARDED QUALMARK CERTIFICATION AS AN ENDORSED VISITOR ACTIVITY 

25th September 2013 - TOP 10 HOLIDAY PARKS LAUNCHES QUALMARK-STANDARD TOP MOTEL PRODUCT

Asking a small favour
We hope that you value the news that we publish so while you're here can we ask for your support?

The news we publish at www.ausleisure.com.au is independent, credible (we hope) and free for you to access, with no pay walls and no annoying pop-up ads.

However, as an independent publisher, can we ask for you to support us by subscribing to the printed Australasian Leisure Management magazine - if you don't already do so.

Published bi-monthly since 1997, the printed Australasian Leisure Management differs from this website in that it publishes longer, in-depth and analytical features covering aquatics, attractions, entertainment, events, fitness, parks, recreation, sport, tourism and venues management.

Subscriptions cost just $90 a year.

Click here to subscribe.