Freedom camping by the numbers

Freedom campers make up just 3 per cent of visitors to New Zealand but their numbers have risen to about 110,000 over the past year – depending on how you measure them.

Australian visitors made up the largest number visitors who did ‘‘some’’ freedom camping, at 25 per cent (28,000).

German visitors were the next most likely to freedom camp (16,000), followed by visitors from the United Kingdom.

Freedom campers tended to visit more regions and stay longer, meaning they spent more in total even if they spent less per day, according to a report by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).

But Iain Shaw, from research firm Angus & Associates, said more work needed to be done on agreeing on a definition of who was a ‘‘freedom camper’’ as opposed to ‘‘freedom camping’’, to understand whether this type of tourism was beneficial.

He said data published by MBIE measured everyone who spent one night ‘‘freedom camping’’ during their visit. One night under the stars in the bush was quite different from freedom campers who did not spend money on commercial accommodation for most of their stay, he said.

‘‘My personal opinion is that it is freedom campers rather than freedom camping that concerns New Zealanders,’’ Shaw said.

‘‘And if that is the case, then we need to develop a better understanding of how these visitors affect communities, because it’s one of the biggest threats to tourism’s social licence.’’

Local Government New Zealand will hold a freedom camping symposium in Nelson next week. Government ministers and several mayors and chief executives will attend.

Meanwhile, MBIE’s latest report found freedom campers tended to stay roughly 51 days and spent about $4700 per visitor, with a daily spend of $90 (compared with $190 daily for all visitors).

The overall estimated expenditure of visitors who did some freedom camping was $530m last year.

Freedom campers visited more than eight regions compared with three regions for all visitors.

The International Visitor Survey report measured the number of visitors who did some freedom camping – ‘‘staying at a place that is not an official campsite, in a tent, caravan, campervan or motorhome’’.