Ski – resort and regional development: profile of visitors ... - E-Journal

More documents

Recommendations

Info

A tale of two caravan parks: friendship, community and the freedom thing A tale of two caravan parks: friendship, community and the freedom thing Carmel Foley and Bruce Hayllar ABSTRACT carmel.foley@uts.edu.au bruce.hayllar@uts.edu.au This paper presents the findings of a research project that explored notions of friendship and community in the context of caravan park holidays for repeat visitors to two caravan parks. The study was conducted by way of in-depth interview with 22 visitors to a caravan park on the south coast of News South Wales (Australia) in 2006 and 20 visitors to a caravan park in far north Queensland (Australia) in 2007. For both parks the findings indicate that the major attractions of caravan park holidays for long term repeat visitors are the friendships that build up over years of repeat visitation, and the relaxing lifestyle that the holiday affords. For the older and smaller of the parks the respondents also reported that a strong sense of community existed among the visitors and that this was a very satisfying feature of their holiday experience. There was less mention of a sense of community from respondents at the larger and more recently established park. Theoretical implications: there is an emerging literature documenting the possibilities of ‘serious leisure’ and ‘focal leisure activities’ as significant investment channels in the accumulation of social capital. This paper supports the theory that focal leisure activities can foster the development of a sense of community, however, our findings indicate that factors influencing this growth may include the “age” of the group and also the size of the group. Management and marketing implications: caravan park (and other tourist service) organisations may benefit from including notions of friendship and community in their marketing campaigns rather than the usual narrow focus upon facilities From a management perspective it may be useful to consider programming activities and providing amenities that facilitate social engagement and communal activity. Key words: caravans and camping, community, friendship, social capital, holidays. INTRODUCTION This article explores the notions of ‘friendship’ and ‘community’ in the context of regular annual holidays in caravan parks. While not previously associated with the tourism and leisure literature, theories concerned with social capital (Putnam, 2000; Arai & Pedlar, 2003; Rojek, 2005), social engagement (Larsen, Urry & Axhausen, forthcoming; Urry, 2002) and community attachment (Kyle & Chick, 2004) are beginning to be discussed as significant aspects of Tourism Today - Fall 2007 - Full Paper 7
8 Carmel Foley and Bruce Hayllar leisure and tourism involvement. In this paper we explore some of these emerging ideas through the use of stories and reminiscences from two groups of visitors, the first to a caravan park in far north Queensland, Australia, and the second to a caravan park on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia. Caravan parks in Australia are generally small businesses run by private operators and, at times, by local authorities. Typically they have a mix of caravan and camping sites and selfcontained accommodation such as cabins available for hire. Many parks feature attractive facilities such as swimming pools, ‘jumping pillows’, mini golf courses and tennis courts (for images refer to Big4.com.au and TopTouristParks.com.au). While caravan parks have traditionally offered an accessible holiday alternative for lower income families, the rising costs for camping and accommodation over the past decade has impacted upon this ‘traditional’ group and the market appears to have shifted toward middle income families. Caravan parks have long been a popular holiday choice for domestic travellers in Australia (Prideaux & McClymont, 2005, p.371). Many Australians, including the authors of this paper, have enduring memories of family holidays in caravan parks. Indeed, family groups continue to be the major users of caravan parks (Ipalawatte, Carter, Heaney & Lubulwa, 2005). Recent growth in the sector, however, has been attributed to the increasing popularity of caravanning and camping among the over 55s. New caravan registrations increased by 40 per cent in the period 2000 to 2003 (Prideaux & McClymont, 2005, p. 371) and according to Ipalawatte, Carter, Heaney and Lubulwa (2005) caravan park holidays are currently one of the fastest growing niche markets in the Australian tourism sector. Domestic travellers who stay mainly in caravan parks tend to travel in groups as an adult couple 55 years and over, or in a younger family group (Ipalawatte, Carter, Heaney & Lubulwa, 2005). In 2003/2004 these two groups accounted for 24 per cent and 37 per cent respectively of total visitor nights spent in caravan and camping accommodation (Ipalawatte, Carter, Heaney & Lubulwa, 2005, p.13). Family caravan park holidays tend to be concentrated around the Christmas and Easter periods that coincide with school holidays. The older group travel consistently throughout the year, peaking during August (Ipalawatte, Carter, Heaney & Lubulwa, 2005, p.18). The industry forecast further increases in demand from the seniors market (age 55 years and over) for caravan park holiday accommodation with the ageing of the Australian population over future decades (Ipalawatte, Carter, Heaney & Lubulwa, 2005). Despite the long term popularity of caravan park tourism in Australia, the literature in the area is quite limited. A number of industry reports and academic papers have identified growth trends and management issues in the caravan and camping sector (see Hayllar, Crilley & Bell, 2006; Prideaux & McClymont, 2005; Ipalawatte, Carter, Heaney & Lubulwa, 2005) but limited literature exists on any socio-cultural aspects of these holidays. A notable exception to the above is Marles’ (2002, 2003) research which explores the Tourism Today - Fall 2007 - Full Paper
Page 1 and 2: THE JOURNAL OF THE COLLEGE OF TOURI
Page 3 and 4: Editorial Board Board Founder: Anto
Page 5 and 6: 4 Contents Contents Editorial board
Page 7: 6 Note from the editor Note from th
Page 11 and 12: 10 Carmel Foley and Bruce Hayllar t
Page 13 and 14: 12 Carmel Foley and Bruce Hayllar p
Page 15 and 16: 14 Carmel Foley and Bruce Hayllar M
Page 17 and 18: 16 Carmel Foley and Bruce Hayllar T
Page 19 and 20: 18 Carmel Foley and Bruce Hayllar M
Page 23 and 24: 22 Carmel Foley and Bruce Hayllar g
Page 25 and 26: 24 Carmel Foley and Bruce Hayllar a
Page 29 and 30: 28 Carmel Foley and Bruce Hayllar
Page 31 and 32: 30 trip; the evolution of intrinsic
Page 33 and 34: 32 also varied accordingly, while a
Page 35 and 36: 34 by the competition withy other p
Page 37 and 38: 36 rates! Some tour leaders (or tou
Page 39 and 40: 38 professionals consider these pra
Page 41 and 42: 40 Overall, language tourism can me
Page 43 and 44: 42 • Pearce, P. L. (1995). From c
Page 45 and 46: 44 Filio Lazana, Diana Draganescu,
Page 59 and 60:
58 Filio Lazana, Diana Draganescu,
Page 61 and 62:
60 Filio Lazana, Diana Draganescu,
Page 63 and 64:
62 Jaume Garau-Taberner competitive
Page 65 and 66:
64 Jaume Garau-Taberner 2.1.4 Other
Page 67 and 68:
66 Jaume Garau-Taberner The next st
Page 69 and 70:
68 Jaume Garau-Taberner 4.2 Results
Page 71 and 72:
70 Jaume Garau-Taberner In continua
Page 73 and 74:
72 Jaume Garau-Taberner Figure 5. T
Page 75 and 76:
74 Jaume Garau-Taberner for each of
Page 77 and 78:
76 Jaume Garau-Taberner The results
Page 79 and 80:
78 Jaume Garau-Taberner • Papathe
Page 81 and 82:
80 Onome Daniel Awaritefe 2001; Gar
Page 83 and 84:
82 Onome Daniel Awaritefe were also
Page 85 and 86:
84 Onome Daniel Awaritefe Fig 1: St
Page 87 and 88:
86 Onome Daniel Awaritefe Variable
Page 89 and 90:
88 Onome Daniel Awaritefe RESULT PR
Page 91 and 92:
90 Onome Daniel Awaritefe differed
Page 93 and 94:
92 Onome Daniel Awaritefe character
Page 95 and 96:
94 Onome Daniel Awaritefe The findi
Page 97 and 98:
96 Onome Daniel Awaritefe • Leopo
Page 99 and 100:
98 Onome Daniel Awaritefe Table 3:D
Page 101 and 102:
100 Stanislav Ivanov Dynamic overbo
Page 103 and 104:
102 Stanislav Ivanov Tourism Today
Page 105 and 106:
104 Stanislav Ivanov (11) The total
Page 107 and 108:
106 Stanislav Ivanov If, for exampl
Page 109 and 110:
108 Stanislav Ivanov Tourism Today
Page 111 and 112:
110 Garyfallos Arabatzis, Serafeim
Page 113 and 114:
Page 115 and 116:
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Page 127 and 128:
126 Yao-Yi Fu, Amanda K. Cecil, Suo
Page 129 and 130:
Page 131 and 132:
Page 133 and 134:
Page 135 and 136:
Page 137 and 138:
Page 139 and 140:
Page 141 and 142:
Page 143 and 144:
Page 145 and 146:
Page 147 and 148:
Page 149 and 150:
Page 151 and 152:
150 Ski - resort and regional devel
Page 153 and 154:
Page 155 and 156:
Page 157 and 158:
Page 159 and 160:
Page 161 and 162:
Page 163 and 164:
Page 165 and 166:
164 Olga Christopoulou, Garyfallos
Page 167 and 168:
166 Olga Christopoulou, Garyfallos
Page 169 and 170:
168 The european journal of tourism
Page 171 and 172:
170 Contributors Amanda K. Cecil De
Page 173 and 174:
172 Contributors Jesús García Lab
Page 175 and 176:
174 Notes For Contributors Notes Fo
Page 177:
176 Notes For Contributors must be
show all

Ski – resort and regional development: profile of visitors ... - E-Journal

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?