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29 June, 2023

Caravan and camping holidays on the rise amid cost of living crisis

The Caravan Industry Association of Australia has released the industry’s latest holiday and accommodation data showing strong surges in trips across the country.

The data shows caravan and camping holidays remain the first choice for customer focussed products and value-for-money holiday offerings in Australia.

Numbers for the March quarter showed a strong surge in travel numbers with people embarking on 4.5 million trips (up 24 per cent) around our beautiful country and 18 million nights (up 22 per cent) spent caravanning and camping.

That takes the annual rolling figure for trips to 15.5 million trips and 62.3 million nights and $11.2bn in visitor expenditure. Far surpassing the 2019 pre-COVID figures of 14 million trips and 59 million nights.

Caravanning and camping is the number 1 provider of nights for holidays in the country in the March quarter, this means strong support for our regional and rural economies with 90 per cent of trips taken in regional areas.

“Seeing growth in the industry is always great to see, but in the face of uncertain economic times, these numbers demonstrate the everlasting strength of our customer offering and our immense value for money proposition,” CEO, Caravan Industry Association of Australia, Stuart Lamont, said.

“We’re continuing to see Australians’ love affair with their country grow, spending more and more time in our beautiful regional and rural towns. That makes the growth even more encouraging, knowing that 89% of these trips are being spent in areas needing the support.”

Australians’ love of road-tripping is evident in the demand for RV products, with approximately 800 thousand registered RVs, they embody the adventurous spirit and more importantly are putting money directly into the hands of many regional small businesses.

“In a time when we haven’t seen international visitors return to our shores like we were told, it has been the caravan industry and its parks and holiday resorts across the country helping to provide economic through continued tourism dollars.

“On average travellers spend $867 per trip in a caravan park and creating over $11.2 billion of visitor expenditure annually.”

While we continue to see economic challenges ahead and a softening in consumer confidence, the caravan and camping industry remains the backbone of the domestic tourism industry and major contributor to the country’s economy despite the headwinds, looking forward to continuing to build on the $27 billion worth of annual economic value to the Australian economy.

“It is clear to see that Australian’s are travellers, with continued high costs associated to overseas travelling and flailing international tourist figures we look continue to be the industry of choice for people wanting a getaway from their everyday,” Stuart, said.

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Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

camping holiday Caravan Holiday Caravan Industry Association of Australia cost of living Stuart Lamont