Freedom Campers in NZ: An Activity-Based Analysis of their Economic Contribution

Freedom camping is undertaken by diverse tourist demographics including young budget travellers, couples with children, and retirees. These tourists tend to stay longer than the pleasure traveller, but because they tend to avoid campsite fees, and make use of public infrastructure without charge these tourists are frequently labelled “freeloaders”. Freedom campers’ contributions to local economies through purchase of supplies and services have been disregarded while the larger-scale economic activity associated with RV purchases and rentals is often overlooked. Freedom campers can often visit remote regions, thus contributing to local economic development. Another argument in favour of freedom camping postulates that the funds saved on accommodation will be used for other tourist endeavours, such as activities. Quantitative evaluations of the economic contribution of freedom camping are missing in debates over its impact. Specifically, comparisons of the economic value of the activities undertaken by freedom campers against tourists staying in other forms of accommodation (e.g. hotels, motels, backpackers and B&Bs) are non-existent. In this study, we aim to determine whether freedom campers are “low value” tourists based on the activities undertaken and their spending behaviour in New Zealand. We employ a pooled cross-sectional design that uses data spanning the period from 2013 to 2018 sourced from the NZ International Visitor Survey. We find that freedom campers engage in an above-average number of free activities compared to other tourists. However, when considering medium and high expense activities freedom campers’ profiles are similar to other visitors to New Zealand.