A Strategic Approach to the Caravan and Camping Industry 2012

An Overflow Policy That Works
Recommendation 7: Develop a State-wide Overflow Policy That Works for Visitors and Supports Industry
Develop a state-wide overflow policy which is consistently enforced for the
benefit of visitors and the support of industry.
Provide a well-developed framework to ensure the travelling public has an
opportunity to stay at their location of choice, as opposed to having to
bypass a town or region when tourist demand exceeds the capacity of local
licensed caravan parks.
Issues and Risks
In many remote and regional locations, there is often a level of demand during peak
tourism periods when the capacity of existing commercial caravan and tourist parks is
at saturation.
An overflow policy will respond to concerns raised by visitors with regard to the lack of
caravan park capacity during peak tourist seasons, and avoid conflict with the Caravan
Parks and Campgrounds legislation.
The absence of a clear overflow policy can promote illegal camping and the
inappropriate use of community facilities, resulting in a potentially negative outcome
(visual and noise pollution, environmental damage and maintenance and clean-up of
the camp sites) for the local community.
There are currently potential conflicts of interest where local government regulates
commercial caravan parks and also provides (potentially unfair) competition to them
through overflow camping facilities.
The risk that the overflow facility replaces fully licensed caravan parks is significant
where tariffs are much lower. Potentially a shift in occupancy from licenced caravan
parks to overflow facilities could impact on the viability of the licensed facilities,
leading to a reduction in supply.
The Caravan Industry Western Australia Inc. and the Caravan Parks Association of
Queensland have both produced draft overflow policies which “provide a set of
guidelines for Local Government that assist in the promotion of tourism” 90 and “aid
Local Government to establish a protocol of referral between local licenced caravan
parks, the Local Authority, the relevant Tourist Association, and newly arrived visitors
to be directed to overflow facilities” 91 . While each of the State Caravan Parks
Associations’ draft policies have merit, they require complex administration, do not
provide certainty for consumers in booking sites during peak periods and are
regarded by the caravan and camping consumer groups as being biased towards
caravan park operators.
Strategy
This strategy draws from both of the State Caravan Association policies and takes into
account the comments and feedback from all sectors of the industry and consumers
during the consultation.
There are generally two situations where this policy has application, namely, where
communities are serviced by both the presence of local caravan parks and local
showground, sportsground, and community facilities and where towns and
communities are not serviced by the presence of a caravan park but have community
facilities suitable for short-term camping.
In the first situation, the overflow area must be carefully managed to avoid unfair
competition with licensed caravan parks, which are required to maintain high
standards of facilities. The proposed Overflow Policy would require that local
government establishes seasonal demand , the supply of overflow facilities required
and appropriate sites. The sites may include the community facilities described above.
For the latter example, the proposed Overflow Policy would require that local
government identify one or more community facilities suitable for a Transit Camp or
Limited Facility Camp (overflow facility). It would provide a licence to the overflow
facility operator to operate as a Transit Camp or Limited Facility Camp as appropriate,
ensuring the town could accommodate caravan and camping based tourists.
Local government would approve the opening of an overflow facility for the period of
peak seasonal tourism demand, subject to the licensed caravan park being ninety
percent booked or occupied on any one day. Where the bookings for all the local
caravan parks do not exceed ninety percent, the overflow facility must not accept new
90 Use of Local Showgrounds & Community Facilities - Overflow Policy, Caravan Parks Assn Queensland
91 Template for A Local Government Overflow camping Policy – CIAWA
A Strategic Approach to Caravan and Camping Tourism in Western Australia Page 100