The caravan travel shoulder season has not become the new peak. Australians spent about 13.9 million caravan and camping nights away in spring (September to November) 2024, down about 16 per cent from 16.5 million in 2019, according to our analysis of Tourism Research Australia survey figures published in the Caravan Industry Association of Australia’s State of Industry 2025 report. Autumn went the other way, up about 9 per cent.
For anyone booking a trip, that split matters more than any headline about a caravan boom. In 2019, spring was the busier of the two shoulder seasons. By 2024, autumn had overtaken it, drawing about as many caravan and camping nights as summer, while spring drew fewer nights than it did before COVID.
The numbers
The industry association’s report charts Tourism Research Australia’s National Visitor Survey by month for 2019 and 2024. We grouped those months into seasons. 2024 is the most recent full year in that survey: Tourism Research Australia replaced it with a new Domestic Tourism Statistics series in 2025, and the association says the new figures cannot be compared with earlier survey results.
We define the shoulder season as autumn (March to May) plus spring (September to November), the months between summer and winter. On that definition, the shoulder’s share of the year barely moved: 52.4 per cent of nights in 2019 and 52.0 per cent in 2024. What changed is which end of the year people use.
WUDU ANALYSIS: 2019 VS 2024
Spring lost about a sixth of its caravan nights
In 2019 spring was the busier shoulder season. By 2024 autumn had overtaken it, with about 15.7 million nights against 13.9 million.
CARAVAN AND CAMPING NIGHTS BY MONTH, MILLIONS
CHANGE BY SEASON, 2019 TO 2024
Summer Dec to Feb
+1%
15.4m to 15.6m nights
26% to 27% of the year
Autumn Mar to May
+9%
14.4m to 15.7m nights
24% to 28% of the year
Winter Jun to Aug
−7%
12.8m to 11.8m nights
22% to 21% of the year
Spring Sep to Nov
−16%
16.5m to 13.9m nights
28% to 24% of the year
The shoulder did not grow, it swapped ends. Autumn and spring together held 52.4% of the year’s nights in 2019 and 52.0% in 2024.
Source: Tourism Research Australia, National Visitor Survey, as charted by Caravan Industry Association of Australia, State of Industry 2025 (p22). WUDU read the monthly values from the chart’s vector data; the 2024 months sum to 57.1 million nights, matching the report’s stated total. Figures rounded. Seasons are calendar months; shoulder = autumn (Mar to May) plus spring (Sep to Nov). 2024 is the latest year in this survey: its 2025 replacement is not comparable.
Month by month, 2024 ran ahead of 2019 in January, March, April, May, August and December, and behind in February, July, September, October and November. June was level. The biggest falls were July, down about 27 per cent, September, down about 20 per cent, and November, down about 21 per cent. April rose about 11 per cent.
Summer’s share of the year edged up from 26.0 to 27.3 per cent. Take April out of the shoulder, and the remaining shoulder months (March, May, September, October and November) fell about 8 per cent. Across the whole year, nights were about 3.5 per cent lower in 2024 than in 2019.
Worth knowing: the report publishes these monthly figures as a chart, not a table. We read each point from the chart’s underlying vector data, measured against its own axis. The 2024 months add up to 57.1 million nights and 15.2 million trips, the same totals the report states for the year, so the readings hold to about 0.1 million nights a month. That is why every figure here is rounded.
Why travellers are moving
Spring trips did not disappear. By our reading of the same report, spring caravan and camping trips rose about 7 per cent between 2019 and 2024. They just got shorter, from about 4.6 nights per spring trip in 2019 to about 3.6 in 2024.
The industry association’s explanation centres on older travellers. Its report says trips of 15 nights or more fell by four percentage points to 18 per cent of caravan and camping nights in 2024, a shift it says “can be largely attributed to product substitution by travellers aged 55 and over”. It also notes that outbound travel grew by more than 20 per cent in 2024.
“…financially confident travellers aged 55 and older, who increasingly favoured international destinations such as New Zealand, Indonesia, and Europe.”
Caravan Industry Association of Australia, State of Industry 2025
Families held up better. The same report calls the family market “the cornerstone of the caravan and camping sector in 2024”: family trips rose 5 per cent on 2023, while family nights slipped 1 per cent. The “Older Non-Working” segment took 1 per cent fewer trips and 9 per cent fewer nights. That fits a period in which the holiday months grew and the long trips between them shrank. We looked at who is behind those numbers in our piece on who is really driving the caravan boom, and at how working professionals are reshaping the old grey nomad trip.
Cost is part of it too. The report says rising cost-of-living pressure led many travellers “to opt for shorter trips and destinations closer to home”. The average caravan and camping trip fell to a record low of 3.78 nights in 2024, and two- and three-night trips made up 45 per cent of trips, which the report links to “brief getaways during holiday periods and extended weekends”. That is the pattern behind the rise of short caravan getaways.
None of this is new so much as sharper. Tourism Research Australia’s 2019 profile of commercial caravan and camping travel already described trips as “concentrated over Christmas, New Year and Easter breaks”. Five years on, the holiday peaks held up and the long, unhurried trips in between thinned out.
What it means for booking
The practical read is that the two shoulders now behave differently. Autumn, led by April, now draws as many caravan and camping nights as summer. Spring draws fewer nights than it did in 2019, though by powered-site occupancy it is not the quietest time of year.
- Book April early. April nights grew about 11 per cent on 2019. Some parks set longer minimum stays over holiday periods. Macleay Valley Coast Holiday Parks on the NSW mid North Coast, for example, takes site bookings over Easter and school holidays in one-week blocks until a month out, and asks for at least three nights over long weekends when you book more than a month ahead.
- Expect lower site rates outside summer. In 2024 the national average daily rate for a powered site was $64 from January to March, and $55 in both April to June and July to September, about 14 per cent lower, according to BDO data in the State of Industry 2025 report. October to December averaged $63.
- Spring is quieter than it was, not empty. Spring nights fell about 16 per cent on 2019, but park occupancy tells a closer story. National powered-site occupancy was 48 per cent from October to December 2024, slightly above the 46 per cent from April to June, the quarter that holds most of autumn. In September 2026, the latest month the association has published, powered sites averaged 50.5 per cent occupancy at $64 a night across 404 parks.
- Do not write off September. It was still the busiest month of 2024 outside January and April, so the spring school holiday weeks are worth booking ahead.
- Watch for sales. Operators do discount. In mid-2026, Discovery Parks ran an end-of-financial-year sale pitched at winter travel, offering up to 30 per cent off stays through to 1 October 2026 for bookings made before 15 July, with a two-night minimum. That sale has ended, but it is the kind of offer worth watching for.
Where it shows up most
The national survey chart does not split by state, but the industry’s caravan park data shows how differently the seasons run around the country. These are 2024 powered-site occupancy figures from BDO, compiled from park booking systems for the State of Industry 2025 report.
| State | Jul to Sep | Oct to Dec |
|---|---|---|
| QLD | 80% | 53% |
| WA | 61% | 48% |
| NT | 55% | 15% |
| NSW | 39% | 49% |
| SA | 34% | 51% |
| VIC | 24% | 39% |
| TAS | 22% | 52% |
In the south, July to September is the quiet quarter: Victoria’s powered sites were 24 per cent full and Tasmania’s 22 per cent. In Queensland the same quarter was the busiest of the year, at 80 per cent. The report puts the difference down to “different climate patterns and consumer preferences”, with the Northern Territory and Queensland peaking in the winter months.
The drop in long trips matters most in the north. The report says the shift to overseas travel by older Australians “impacted long-haul domestic destinations like North Western Australia, the Northern Territory, and Far North Queensland”. If spring is your window, our WA wildflower season guide maps the drive month by month; if you head north for winter, start with our Whitsundays winter guide.
What autumn 2027 could look like
The newer Tourism Research Australia series already shows the April to June quarter holding up. In the June quarter of 2026 (April to June), Australians spent 14.5 million caravan and camping nights away, up 10 per cent on the same quarter of 2025, according to the industry association. Because the survey changed in 2025, that figure cannot be set against 2019.
“…shorter trips and increased sensitivity to fuel costs are likely to favour locations closer to major population centres…”
Caravan Industry Association of Australia, State of the Industry 2026 summary
That is the association’s outlook, not a certainty, and its 2026 summary also says travellers are “making decisions later”. If that outlook holds, the 2019 to 2024 pattern suggests booking April and the school holidays early, especially close to the cities, and keeping spring for the longer trips. Our look at the state of the caravan industry in 2026 covers the wider picture.
Images: Fika Rizkyanti, Riley Elsmore, Alexa Soh and jill hardman on Unsplash.
