Worried campers 'cutting’ holidays

Press, 18 January 1986, Page 7

Worried campers 'cutting’ holidays

PA Dunedin Otago people are so worried about the economy and their future that they are cutting short their summer holidays and heading home, say camping ground proprietors.

Of seven proprietors questioned by the “Otago Daily Times,” only two said that they had not noticed a drop in business.

A proprietor of the Alexandra Holiday Camp, Mr Brian Watson, said that there had been a decline in the number of holidaymakers at the camping ground this summer.

Mr Watson said that people were spending less and cutting snort, if not cancelling entirely, their holidays. “People are worried as to what they’re going home to and what the year is going to bring,” he said. Talk among campers this

year had been political, and many were worried about their future, he said.

Mr Watson said that a lot of his “old hands” — people who returned every year — had cut short their holidays because they could not afford to stay. “I think they are very concerned about what the Government is doing,” he said.

The proprietor of the Queenstown Holiday Park at Arthurs Point, Mr Graeme Cobblestone, said that it was quiet for the time of year. “A lot of people reckon they can’t afford to go away this year and some have cut their holidays short. We are not full all the time and there have not been as many enquiries as in other years,” Mr Cobblestone said.

His sentiments were echoed by the manager of the Queenstown Motor

Park, Mrs Pat Carrodus.

But the proprietor of the Frankton Motor Camp, Mr Brian Rooney, did not agree.

He said that his ground had a lot of regulars staying, and accommodation was running full every night. Also, there had been a big increase in the number of people in motor homes. The “Otago Daily Times” survey revealed that plenty of overseas visitors had been patronising Otago camping grounds this season.

Most proprietors agreed that the movement of the New Zealand dollar had not caused many cancellations of overseas bookings. They said that the October dollar fluctuations had caused more of a problem with bookings and patronage from abroad.