A survey of more than 850 people who camped in "non-commercial" Central Otago areas last summer was discussed by the Central Otago District Council last week.
Council i-SITE staff sampled camping areas in Cromwell, Alexandra and Roxburgh at night-time in February. It followed similar surveys from 2011 and 2014. It found 524 of the campers surveyed were from New Zealand, and of those 67% were from the North Island.
Mr Cadogan said this challenged much of the "anecdotal" evidence that campers were mostly young foreigners.
It indicated campers who left rubbish and vandalised property were a "bad few", he said.
The number of campers from the North Island was up from 40% in 2014 and 43% in 2011.
"That’s very important to know in terms of our tourism strategy," he said.
Campers were congregating in designated spots such as Bendigo, Lowburn and the Alexandra Rowing Club. Campers were not found in random spots as they were in past years.
This meant the problem was becoming more centralised, which made it easier for staff to manage and council’s freedom camper strategy with Land Information New Zealand was working, Mr Cadogan said.
The average length of stay was eight days, down from 18 days in 2011 and 10 in 2014.
The average spend per camper per day dropped to $64.62 this year compared with $91.64 in 2014 and $66.94 in 2011. Daily spending decreased substantially the longer a camper stayed in the area.
Of the international campers, 30% were working in Central Otago compared with 24% in 2014.
The Cromwell Basin was the most popular camping region, followed by the Alexandra Basin.
The report author, council parks and recreation manager Mathew Begg, noted the survey could not be used to determine the total number of Central Otago campers.
