IT’S A DOG’S LIFE AS PETS TAG ALONG ON FAMILY VACATION
IT is the pawfect start to a new year.
Holiday parks across Queensland are reporting a surge in people taking their pets with them this festive season.
Research from the Caravan Parks Association of Queensland (CPAQ) reveals 75 per cent of the state’s holiday parks now offer some form of pet-friendly facilities, ranging from allowing pets into a small section of the site to fullscale pet-minding services and dog grooming salons.
CPAQ chief executive Michelle Weston said being able to take pets on holidays was a key consideration for many people now.
“In the last five years we’ve definitely seen petfriendly services taking on an increased focus in the industry,” she said.
“Pets are now such an important part of people’s families and it’s far more frequent to see people wanting to take their pets with them on holidays.”
For those who don’t want to spend their holidays going barking mad, Ms Weston said it was important to research your holiday destination.
“It’s worth ringing up to see what the rules are,” she said. “There’s still about a quarter of places that don’t accept any pets at all.
“Even some of the ones that do have conditions where they might only allow it outside peak periods, or in certain sections of parks, or that you can only have a small dog.”
BIG4 Gold Coast Holiday Park at Helensvale welcomes pets and the Allen family from Victoria have given their hungarian vizsla Axel the royal treatment with his own comfortable camp chair – not to mention designer sunglasses – as they kick back on their summer break.