Luxury tax misses mark with campers
A LOBBY group will try to have caravans, campervans and motorhomes excluded from a controversial new tax on luxury vehicles they say will have a detrimental effect on the tourism industry in Far North Queensland.
Caravan Trade and Industry Association of Queensland general manager Jason Plant said there was “real concern” about the new state tax, which comes into effect on July 1, and would add two per cent of dutiable value on vehicles worth more than $100,000.
It is projected to raise about $103 million over four years.
“It has the potential to affect the retail market, which will affect the number of people travelling,” he said.
“We’ve been wrapped up in this luxury tax when the owners of motorhomes are not the same demographic as owners of Jaguars and Lamborghinis.
“It may reduce the amount of money they spend in regional areas up and down the Queensland coast.”
Mr Plant said the tax could discourage travellers from making the long journey up to the Far North.
“This is legislation now. We only found out about this last week. We are seeking to have motorhome and caravan and campervans excluded,” he said.
“We’ve been working with the state opposition and they can see the effect this could have on regional communities if we’re to see fewer caravanners heading around Queensland.”
However, Tourism Tropical North Queensland chief executive Pip Close did not believe the tax would have a large effect on the number of tourists heading to the region.
“It may affect the quality of caravans they can buy,” she said.
“The destination is appealing to many travellers so they’ll still do the trip, they just might do it in a less expensive vehicle.”
Ms Close reinforced comments she made at the start of the region’s peak tourism season about drive tourism being “very strong” in the Far North.
In 2017, Tropical North Queensland had drawn 966,000 domestic drive visitors. In comparison, 902,000 arrived by air.
Ms Close said the number of drive tourists had been steadily increasing with a three-year trend of three per cent growth.
The figures mirror new data from the Caravan Industry As- sociation of Australia, which showed national overnight domestic caravan and camping trips to March this year had reached 11.84 million, a 3.5 per cent increase from March 2017.
Total nights spent caravanning and camping increased by 3.5 per cent to reach a record 51.3 million for the year ending March 2018.
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park. “The villas will go in over the next few months,” Mr Yazbek said. “We’ve built a new boundary line along the train line and we’ve got four in so far. We will eventually fill up the whole street. We’re also going to bring in three pool cabanas.” Mr Yazbek said the park was almost fully booked ahead of school holidays next week. “It’s going to be a very good season,” he said.