Blatherskite Park Camping Under CP threat

Hi Frank. Some of your comment may be valid but where you say "their overpriced parks" I feel is a bit of an over generalisation. We have found many good value for money cheaper parks in our travels,along with showgrounds and free camp spots.
The park we are in at present has power ,water and good amenities and facilities (even a pool) for $20 a night. Granted, it is inland and the expensive ones are usually coastal but the cheapies are still there for us. Cheers,Bob

hi frank
I don't know the full facts but how i see it is this
if the show ground you speak of is owned by the council and they allow cheap camping /caravans fees
and the caravan park is privately owned
the council would be charging the park owners big rates for the park to operate so imho there lies the conflict
and this would give the private park owners the right to complain about unfair competion
just my angle on the topic and I except that i may be wrong
cheers

Yes Frank, as you say showgrounds with lesser quality amenities and a lower price to match meet a different market to caravan parks who are required to have a higher standard of amenities. At 1st September, rates at the Alice Springs showground Blatherskite Park put fees up to $40 - probably more than most of the caravan parks in Alice Springs. What more do they want?

While I feel some political undercurrents going on in Alice Springs, I have been unable to find anyone there willing to talk.

Motherhen

K&FT
Interesting you mentioned 'whingers'.

However what most forget is Councils exist to service their ratepayers and maximise returns. If they can do that better by allocating funding elsewhere than competing with a local business, then so be it.

Additionally, if people don't like it they can go somewhere else.

So many nowadays want something for nothing. Pop the latest egt gauge, Scangauge, satelite tv and loads of booze in the bus then complain about paying an extra $20 a night for good surroundings and amenities.

They're the people I call whingers.

Isn't the issue that too many caravan parks have become Tourist or Holiday Parks and supplying all sorts of frivolous amenities?

Whereas most travellers only require and prefer basic clean and tidy facilities.

As there aren't many parks to choose from, we have to go to the fully optioned places and our attendance is then given as 'proof' that this is what we want. Or go to the Council place and apparently cause the park financial grief.

Then the caravan parks wonder why they have customers vandalise and not respect their property.

Paul

As far as the concept that councils are there to provide a service and not make a profit.......that idea went by the board long ago.

Anybody remember "the national competitiveness policy" that forces governments for good or bad to compete with private enterprise....but in many cases not on the same footing....sometimes it works out in the government bodies favor others against.

A lot of what councils and other government bodies do in this day and age, is very much done " for a profit". Governments in general continue to jack up fees and fines with the sole purpose of generating income.....ya think that the QLD government doubling regestration fees for trailers is not about profit.
Many government operated business and ventures are expected to make money or they would not exist.

Now to this supposed "unfair competition".

It does not matter if it is Gerry Hervey or the local cleaners, there are people who will complain and point to someone else who charges less and being the source of all their woes.

If you are running a business, you have to consider your position. what you charge and what service you provide...there will always be some one who charges less and some one who charges more......if there isn't you have a problem or shortly will.

We have plenty of people complaining about the lack of free camps and others complaining about the lack of services and crap left around at free camps.

These low price camp grounds serve a need and a section in the market.
One hopes that they take a lot of free campers that "can not afford" or aren't prepared to pay, high priced resort prices and puts them where there are services and those that run them can deal with the waste and other issues.

Those who run higher priced or competing facilities need to look at how they are operating, what services they are providing and how well their operation is presented and sold.

There will always be those who seek to exert their own political agenda for their own benifit....remember Gerry Hervey and his rant about "on line imports"....a man who owns one of the most profitable appliance sales groups in the county who uses his market power without hesitation to crush competition complaining about someone having a unfair advantage.....My heart bleeds for you Gerry.

If all those popular free camps became $5 and $10 sites maybe the councils would have enough money to maintain some basic facilities, clean the toilets and collect the garbage.

I doubt that they would take any business away from full blown caravan parks that offer a full range of well maintained facilities at a reasonable price.

cheers

cheers

We stayed in Alice in May this year along with our dog. We stayed for 4 days in a caravan park that had one ablution block, a swimming pool, shop/kiosk and a dog bath. We had power, water and sullage for $38.50 a night. The park was pretty much full with relatively small vans - our 7.5m van was a tight fit.

For the following week we stayed at Blatherskite along with 8 or 10 others. The vast majority were big vans or large Winnebago type vehicles. There was one toilet block and power and water. We paid $25 a night.

The differential in price seemed reasonable to us given the facilities offered at each place.

We have found that entry to some showgrounds is based on the size of the rig and/or dog ownership - this seems reasonable given the difficulty of parking up large vans and campervans in caravan parks, and the number of parks that don't take dogs. Maybe that should be the criteria to use all showgrounds rather than putting up the fees. In that scenario the showground would be catering to a group of travellers that are not necessarily well catered for by the caravan parks.

Phil

Gday,
Bugger.......Ive just got back from the Royal Perth show and payed an arm and leg for accommodation and parking! Silly me......I didn't even think about rolling the swag out in the show grounds to save a few bucks!!!
Oh well.....next time I guess.

This is not an issue that is going away anytime soon and I have written on the topic many times, and you can look into my blogs for some of the issues that I have canvassed previously, especially on “free camping”.

The reality is we have caravans and motor homes that are fully self-contained and looking for somewhere cheap or for free to stay. On the other hand we have caravan parks that are evolving to try and deal with this new breed of traveller, but it won’t happen overnight.

In fact, one of the greatest risks those travelling have is more and more parks will close. Where will we accommodate all those travellers – in free camps subsidised by the local rate payers?

Many communities are already questioning the benefit of subsidising the travel holidays of others. Yes, I heard the arguments of money being spent in the communities, but there is also plenty of anecdotal evidence of this perhaps only occurring in larger centres with the large supermarket chains, and shopper docket service stations. Not the one pump servo, or local corner store in the one street towns.

And hands-up if you think governments, whether they are Federal, State, or Local do a good job of currently managing your tax dollars that they collect from you weekly. Private enterprise is best geared to run business as it is their many in “the game – in the ring, so to speak” not taxpayer dollars collected by Government that is often subjected to waste and mismanagement. This usually (usually) means private enterprise will do it far more efficiently, and reflective of the “real” cost of providing it, not a tax payer subsidised cost.

I often see people posting that caravan parks overcharge, are overpriced, but there never any detailed analysis of the cost of running a park versus the return required to achieve this provided to support these claims. I’d like to see people do that before making these claims – show objective, rather than subjective arguments.

There is some very good objective analysis out there. A recent study by Rodney Caldicott and Pascal Scherrer and published in the Journal of Vacation Marketing in April 2013 is a great example of studies available. They have spent time studying the inverse relationship between downward-trending park capacity and upward trending recreational vehicle/caravan registrations and the significant issues it raises for leisure accommodation.

It also looks at both sides of the equation. Most of the focus is on the “demand” side created by “the travellers” but very little attention is given to the “supply” side.

The study found that traditional site infrastructure, geared towards mobile accommodation forms of caravans and tents, is giving way to fixed forms of relocatable homes and ensuite cabins. In an environment of increasing demand for the caravanning experience but decreasing parks, and thus decreasing total site capacity, the contrasting trends are predicted to create a serious accommodation shortage for the caravanning sector if the tourism industry.

So I come back to my earlier point, are you happy to rely on Government bodies to pick up the slack? I wouldn’t be as they have a woeful record on infrastructure investment.

In the end, a resolution to the impasse needs to look at both sides of the equation, both supply and demand – currently many are being short-sighted with one eye on the wallet, this will only be resolved by longer term solutions otherwise we will continue to lose more and more caravan parks, providing the travelling public with less and less accommodation options.

As a footnote, the number of caravan parks has been declining over the last 15 years, despite this the caravan park sector provided 50% of total domestic tourism bed capacity in 2009, generated over $1.1Bln in annual takings and provided direct employment to over 3,500 full and part time employees.

These figures highlight the importance of caravan parks to the Australian Tourism Industry...

Gday,
This doesn't apply to all tourists, so don't jump up and down if your not one of them, but it does apply to a lot of people I come across.

There seems to be a misconception that the poor simple country people are there to supply a service and holiday destination for their more intelligent and privileged city dwelling cousins? LOL

I couldn't count how many travellers stopped at my place in Alice, got there oil changed, borrowed tools, got me to do welding repairs, got me to organise CHEAP mechanical deals through mates, accommodation, use of sheds and hoists etc....all sorts of favours. People Ive never met until I offered or they asked for help.....(Im not talking about people Ive met on here).....complete strangers.

I now live in WA.......can you imagine if while in Perth I stopped someone on the road and asked if I could come and use their shed to do an oil change or put my camper trailer up on their lawn because the local places where to dear??????
When I go to Perth I pay an arm and a leg if I want to stay as a tourist!

I know Im getting a bit off track here, but Its getting more and more common on here that people are complaining about the services provided by small towns and what it costs them while they are there yet when I go to the city I don't hear to many rate payers and local businesses lobbying their councils to provide cheaper places for their country dwelling cousins to stay????

I have lots a travellers stay at my place and have a granny flat with toilet, shower and power and a place to park a couple of vans and in return, when I travel, I can usually find a place to stay with people Ive helped over the years..........
I just think if people started to offer help a bit more rather than expecting help, a lot more cheaper options in general may come available......otherwise its just the society a lot of people live in and it will only get worse.

Ok Im ready for the abuse!!! LOL

Cheers