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THE Golden Backpack Awards have announced two new categories for the
Australian and New Zealand caravan and camping industries.
This follows discussions with leading holiday park group Australian
Tourist Park Management (ATPM).
The annual awards, which recognise companies who make backpacking around
Australia and New Zealand that extra bit special, will now include the
categories Best Camping/Holiday Park Australia and Best
Camping/Holiday Park New Zealand.
ATPM marketing, sales and information general manager Daniel Tilton said
holiday parks were as relevant to the backpacker market as they were to
other demographics.
"The number of backpackers staying in this type of accommodation is on the
rise and some parks are now even marketing themselves specifically to this
audience," he said.
"For example, the clientele at Cairns Holiday Park is more than 50 percent
backpackers. The park offers lodging accommodation, with three beds in
each room, and shared bathroom facilities.
"It is budget accommodation specifically for this type of market."
Mr Tilton said the park also supported backpackers by forging
relationships with adventure tourism operators in the area, such as bungee
jumping, white water rafting and reef diving.
"A great thing many backpackers are now doing is hiring a campervan and
driving around Australia, staying on powered sites along the way.
"It's cheap and the parks have all the amenities that they would expect,
and more in some cases.
"People are now seriously using them as alternatives to the expensive
inner city hostels to enable themselves to stay longer in or around the
larger cities."
Kevin Ellis, managing director of Startrack Media ‒ which runs the awards
‒ said he was delighted to announce the new categories.
"We promised to keep our finger on the pulse of our constantly evolving
industry and I believe these new categories demonstrate that," he
explained.
"The new categories complement the existing awards well ... this is a
sector that fully deserves to be involved in the Golden Backpacks.
"With even more park owners now marketing specifically to the
international youth travel market and with numbers swelling on their
sites, I expect them to become a mainstay of the awards in the future.
"We look forward to welcoming the nominations and in due course the
winners!"
