Northland TOP 10 Holiday Park wins highest accolades

Northland TOP 10 Holiday Park wins highest accolades at national awards

3 August 2015 – Kauri Coast has taken out this year’s Supreme Award in the annual TOP 10 Holiday Parks’ annual awards.

The awards celebrate the excellence and achievements of the 47 franchisees throughout the New Zealand. The Supreme Award in turn recognises the top overall holiday park in the TOP 10 Group.

Chris and Jane McComb bought the 2ha park two years ago, quitting their Auckland life for the Kauri Coast. Chris previously had a plumbing and gas fitting business while Jane worked in administration and human resources. UK born, Jane earlier worked in her home country for the then Hotel & Catering Training Board.

“It had always been our long term goal to buy a holiday park or something similar. The life is certainly different but between Chris and I, we have a varied skill set. Chris can handle maintenance and construction issues while my background in hospitality means that I understand what we need on that front. It’s a winning combination,” says Jane.

Chris and Jane live on site and love the lifestyle.

“The park is beautiful and very peaceful. The people who come here are usually lovely. When they arrive they sometimes look tired and frazzled. But within an hour you see them walking around the park with a smile on their face. It’s a very positive atmosphere.”

Jane was “absolutely thrilled” to win the coveted Supreme Award.

“There are so many awesome operators out there doing a great job. I was astonished but very grateful for the recognition of what we’re doing.”

Always looking for new opportunities to develop the Kauri Coast Top 10 Holiday Park, the enterprising couple is opening an equestrian centre on site in October. Jane is a keen horsewoman and has an international coaching certificate as a riding instructor.

“We have such a lovely big area, so we want to be able to offer riding holidays for people, who have their own horses, and also riding lessons to all our guests.

During the busiest month of January, about two thirds of holiday makers are from Auckland and Northland while the rest of the year is a mix of international and New Zealand visitors. The park features 100 powered and unpowered sites, together with 11 cabins/motels catering for about 40 people.

Kauri Coast also won the best branded park and was runner-up for the biggest increase in online sales.

Supreme Award runner up was Rotorua.

David Ovendale, TOP 10 Holiday Park chief executive says the awards aim to recognise and celebrate the hard work and excellence achieved by the holiday parks that consistently excel at what they do.

Other holiday parks to receive awards included:

Ovendale said New Zealand Holiday Parks currently generate 6.7 million guest nights annually, representing 19% of all commercial guest nights in the past year.

Domestic visitors make up 68% of patronage with the international marketing delivering 32% of guest nights.

“As New Zealand’s premier holiday park group, TOP 10 have greater appeal to the international market with 49% of our guest nights attributable to international visitors.

“To support this, the TOP 10 Group has just launched an international, multi-day, “voucher style” passport specifically targeting overseas customers before they leave their country of origin.”

While staying at New Zealand Holiday Parks, visitors contribute, in terms of direct expenditure, just under $1 billion annually to the New Zealand economy.

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