Gen X drives camping boom

Caravanning and camping remains a popular activity for Australian travellers, according to a snapshot report released by Tourism Research Australia (TRA).

The figures reveal that Aussies accounted for 91 per cent of all caravanning and camping nights, and of the $7 billion tourists spent on caravanning and camping in 2011, $5.4 billion was spent by locals.

Despite the common perception, it’s not grey nomads driving the trend, with more than half of local campers aged 30-54 years and around one quarter aged 55 to 70 years.

According to the Tourism Australia report, Australia has more than 1600 caravan parks (with at least 40 powered sites), employing 10,600 people and injecting $50 million into the economy.

These parks hosted around 225,100 sites, with an occupancy rate of 53 per cent. NSW was the most popular state to visit, followed by Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia.

Last year, domestic campers spent slightly more overall per trip ($667) than other domestic visitors ($656), but this was ''not surprising given that their average length of stay was two nights longer than for other visitors,'' the report said.

Overseas campers -- mainly from Britain, Germany and New Zealand -- spent significantly more ($7507 each) than other international visitors ($4776).

Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson, said the Caravan or Camping in Australia 2011 Snapshot shows that international and domestic tourists stayed over 45 million nights camping and in caravans.

"The sector is continuing to perform well in a difficult climate," he said. “Despite the recent spate of natural disasters, and global economic turmoil, these numbers have remained reasonably steady over the past five years.

“The industry directly employs over 10,000 people, and with around 90 per cent of total caravan and camping nights spent outside Australia’s capital city tourism regions, these figures highlight how important this sector is to these regional areas.”

As a whole, the tourism industry was worth $73.3 billion to the Australian economy in 2010-2011, according to TRA. More than 900,000 people are directly and indirectly employed by spending on tourism – more than the mining industry.