Domestic travellers play big part in holiday park success

The latest figures on holiday parks shows it's now a $1.2 billion sector annually, with some of Whanganui's 110,00 thousand visitors per year contributing to it.

Data commissioned by Holiday Parks New Zealand looked at a range of different regions and types of visitors.

It showed nationally peak season visitors spent an average of $144 per night, with $127 coming from domestic guests and $168 attributed to international guests.

Holiday Parks New Zealand chief executive Fergus Brown said he was pleased more than 60 per cent of holiday park guest nights were taken by domestic travellers.

"It's positive to see that New Zealanders still choose to stay in our holiday parks on their travels throughout the regions of New Zealand.

"It's a Kiwi tradition, and our communities benefit so much from our holiday parks continuing to host visitors."

Brown said an additional benefit of domestic visitors is that they stay longer in one place and are very likely to come back to the same destination year after year.

The study also looked at where holiday park visitors' money was being spent, with accommodation itself coming out tops at about $301 million per year.

Groceries was the second biggest spend at $190m, while the cost for admissions/ activities came in third at $161m.

Overall, the $1.2 billion the sector contributes to the economy matches the figures of the racing industry in 2017, and is more than double what the cruise industry contributed last year.