App takes on camp crowding
A hi-tech solution to prevent overcrowding at popular freedom camping areas is being tested at about 10 sites this summer.
A pilot run by the CamperMate app is alerting campers based on data gathered from four video cameras and more than 100 ground sensors that detect parked campervans.
If there are no vacant spaces, app users receive information about nearby holiday parks offering deals on accommodation
Adam Hutchinson is the founder of Geozone, the company that developed CamperMate, and he said they were using artificial intelligence to recognise motorhome shapes from video footage transmitted from cameras overlooking freedom camping sites so they could give travellers information in real time.
He said freedom campers typically spent every third or fourth night in a paid holiday park, and if a freedom camping area was full, the aim was to steer the overflow to nearby commercial campgrounds.
Geozone, which is owned by campervan hire company Tourism Holdings Ltd, received $400,000 to run the pilot from an $8.5 million Government fund allocated to encourage responsible camping this summer.
Hutchinson said the accuracy of the data about camping sites was improving all the time and they eventually hoped to be able to tell travellers exactly how many sites were available.
‘‘[At present] we can say whether this site is 80, 90 or 100 per cent full,’’ he said.
‘‘In the case of Akaroa a lot of people are making the decision when they are in Christchurch.
‘‘They commit to going out there, then when they arrive it’s full, and they will either park illegally or find somewhere else, so we’re getting the information to them at the point where they make the decision.’’
He said the response from app users had been very positive because the information saved them driving to a site only to find they could not stay there.
‘‘In Rotorua 40 to 50 [app users] had seen the site as being full in one evening.’’
CamperMate expects about 60,000 daily users in peak season, and Hutchinson said data gathered anonymously as part of the pilot is also being provided to 67 local authorities. It would give them a better idea of visitor behaviour and the routes that are travelled so they could decide where to build new infrastructure.