Tourists find camps a disgrace—M.P.

Press, 2 September 1986, Page 36

Tourists find camps a disgrace—M.P.

PA Hamilton Tourists find some camping grounds in New Zealand a disgrace, says the member of Parliament for Waipa, Mrs Katherine O’Regan.

She said with the increase of campervan tourists from overseas it was important that New Zealand’s camping facilities were much improved.

“It must be remembered that hundreds of overseas tourists prefer to tour New Zealand at their leisure and that camping ground facilities must reflect the importance that we place on their valued custom," she said.

Mrs O’Regan said she was told by a keen camper that the municipal and Lands and Survey camping grounds measured up but others left a great deal to be desired. She had written to the

Minister of Tourism, Mr Moore, expressing her concern.

“Perhaps the Minister could disguise himself and take off on a camping holiday to check it out for himself,” she said. A camp owner and a Camp and Cabin Association Waikato and Coronmandel executive member, Mr Roy Carter, said some of Mrs O’Regan’s criticism was valid.

“There are definitely good and bad camps,” he said.

"Some people take on camping grounds as a sideline thing, it is not their full income and they don’t spend a lot of money on it.” Mr Carter said camping grounds would need to become more professional in New Zealand because of the growing tourist market. “Tourism has been realised as a resource now

and camps will have to get rid of this band of depression.”

Mr Carter said one problem was not many camping grounds belonged to an overseeing body such as the Camp and Cabin Association. He said if a customer had a complaint about an association member’s camp he or she could write to the secretary and would always get a reply.

Customers who found non-member camps unsatisfactory could write to the Health Department if it was a hygiene problem or write to the Minister of Tourism or the local council, he said. “The problem is some camp operators don’t know anything about marketing and they’re there to cater for a service. I think some think it’s a nice easy life and they’ll make a lot of money,” Mr Carter said.