THE PARKIE AUT25 - Flipbook - Page 6
Meetings draw attention
TO GROWING CHALLENGES
(From left) Scott Parker, Sam Groth, Tim Curtis and Gary Anderton
following their successful meeting in Parliament House.
The impact of The Grampians
bushfires brought a sense of
urgency to our tourist park
advocacy in early 2025, with our
new GM – Tourist Parks Gary
Anderton, hitting the ground
running.
In March, we submitted several
ideas to the Minister for Tourism
Steve
Dimopoulos
aimed
at
supporting tourist park member
profitability and viability. Our ideas
for support, at nil or limited cost to
government, included:
• A statewide seasonal tourist park
promotion campaign to increase
bookings in winter and spring to
boost cashflow and to ramp up
interest in booking sites in the lead
up to next summer.
• The reintroduction of a small
caravan park improvement grant
scheme to assist SME parks
enhance park amenities without
needing to draw on depleted
reserves or incurring additional
borrowing costs.
• Introduction of a camping voucher
scheme to include CRPVic parks
which offers discounted short-stay
vouchers for visitors to encourage
stays in regulated parks, helping
maintain occupancy rates.
• Targeted
6
marketing
campaigns
that promote the value of staying in
private caravan parks, highlighting
superior amenities, security and
local economic benefit and job
creation.
Our commitment to working
with the government to address
unnecessary barriers to your
success
remains
strong
and
our efforts will continue at both
ministerial and department level.
Shadow Tourism Minister
committed to our
members
In February, Gary joined association
CEO Scott Parker and Vice
President Tim Curtis to meet with
the Shadow Minister for Tourism
and Deputy Leader of the Liberal
Party, Sam Groth to reiterate the
importance of the sector to regional
communities and economies.
The Shadow Minister expressed his
commitment to support the sector
and acknowledged many of the
challenges members face, including
the impact of free camping,
inconsistent council approaches
to granting permits for UMDs and
glamping tents and rising costs.
He also spoke of a desire to visit
member tourist parks in the coming
months to gain some deeper
industry insights which we will
certainly help organise.
Your association is committed
to taking a lead role in shaping
tourism policies ahead of next year’s
Victorian state election to ensure
the interests of our members remain
at the forefront of government
decision making.
We also appreciate the efforts of
Melina Bath MP, member for Eastern
Victoria, who has been supportive
of the association’s opposition
to the government introducing
free camping in Parks Victoria
campgrounds across summer and
the first half of 2025.
Together with the Member for
Lowan Emma Kealy, Ms Bath was
instrumental in helping a tourist
park member, Grampians Paradise
Camping and Caravan Parkland,
have their wetlands restored after
the water was used for firefighting
efforts.
By raising the matter in Parliament
with a question to the Water
Minister, we were able to work with
the relevant department officials to
have the matter resolved, ensuring
the park had adequate water supply
for fire safety requirements across
the school holidays.
