Holiday park guest nights grow, but still plenty of capacity

Holiday park guest nights grow – but still plenty of capacity

Holiday parks enjoyed a boomer April, with guest nights up almost 25% on April 2016, but there is still plenty of room for growth, says Fergus Brown, Chief Executive, Holiday Parks New Zealand.

Stats NZ figures released today show guest nights in holiday parks grew 23.9% in the month of April and increased by 4.5% in the year ended April 2017.

“The impact of Easter falling in April this year was particularly noticeable for holiday parks. Guest nights bounced back in April after a fall in March, up 133,000.

“Domestic guest nights were up almost 30% in April, with many Kiwis taking advantage of the Easter break and long Anzac weekend to get away. International guest nights were also up a healthy 15%.”

Even with this growth, Mr Brown says holiday parks have plenty of capacity to meet current and future demand.

“The annual occupancy rate for holiday parks is under 20%, and although pressure points do exist over January, there is seldom any problem finding sites for guests in campervans, motorhomes, caravans and tents in a holiday park. Even during February, Queenstown parks had space to take more visitors.”

Mr Brown says his association is encouraging freedom campers to stay at holiday parks to take the pressure off local infrastructure facilities.

“We provide low cost accommodation options and the motorhome business is a core part of our holiday parks business.”

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