Council holiday parks manager Greg Hartshorne made the comments at Tuesday's council finance and corporate meeting where he delivered a half-yearly report, to December 31, 2010, on the district's four camping grounds at Queenstown, Wanaka, Glendhu Bay and Arrowtown.
When questioned by councillors on whether dropping prices at Queenstown Lakeview Holiday Park could lure more campers, Mr Hartshorne said $20 a night to stay 100m from town was "a bargain".
"If you go on holiday and you can't afford $20, you should not go on holiday."
Council-run campervan patrols stopped this month, pending the likely introduction of an optional spot-fines regime this year.
On a recent survey conducted inside the town boundary, Mr Hartshorne counted 47 vans parked on the streets and said many travellers who he saw sleeping in vehicles clearly had money because they "had plenty of booze".
"People who you see at the counter haggling for a discount are the ones you see around town carrying boxes of booze ... it's not a money thing, it's just straight out `We're going to do this for nothing'," he said.
People also erected tents on school sites and would sleep in parks.
Mr Hartshorne said people who were caught taking a shower without paying at the campground invariably, when interviewed by police, were found to have had sufficient money to have paid .
Mr Hartshorne's report identified the Queenstown campground as being hardest-hit by the global economic downturn - especially in the campervan and tent market, with campervan companies "struggling to get on the road".
"It continues to be very, very tough out there and it's going to stay that way for some time," he said.
National and international disasters like the Christchurch earthquakes and recent floods in Queenstown's key Queensland market have stopped transtasman and domestic travel to the resort.
"The rest of the world is not travelling," Mr Hartshorne said.
Queenstown's hosting of two teams in the upcoming Rugby World Cup was unlikely to improve the campground's flagging fortunes.
However, he said the report was not all "doom and gloom" and Queenstown and Arrowtown had both had "very strong" bookings in January, while tour group bookings in Queenstown had increased.
The Wanaka ground was still underperforming and needed extensive maintenance.
Council deputy chief executive and finance manager Stewart Burns said campgrounds were not "something we can easily extricate ourselves from", when asked if selling the sites could provide a solution.
He said the council's "high level" strategy on its campgrounds was due to be updated.
