Written by Lee Slater & Sarah Bennett

Held late last year at Tasman Papamoa Beach and the Christchurch Gondola HPNZ’s North Island and South Island Connect & Collaborate meetings were a great opportunity for members and stakeholders to connect and work towards a better future for holiday parks, their guests and Aotearoa’s visitor economy.

Run by new chief executive Emily Byrne, these reinvigorated meetings provided the ideal forum to kickstart a collaborative effort to develop and enhance HPNZ’s strategy and vision. Seeded with insights from the recent member survey, Emily chaired lively and creative workshops reviewing the organisation’s current approach, finding out from members what’s working and what we need to concentrate on in the short, medium and long term.

The HPNZ vision, mission, strategic priorities and sustainability principles were evaluated with the general consensus, online and at the meetings, that we’re still heading in the right direction, but there are several opportunities for taking the organisation to the next level.

But let’s start with our strengths. This year HPNZ celebrates its 70-year (platinum!) anniversary and decades worth of institutional knowledge. Coupled with an enduring appetite for collaboration enables us share lessons learned and encourage innovation for positive impacts felt at a community and industry level. We’re champions of sustainability, both environmentally and economically, with an authentic focus on local.

Our unique selling points, of a bed for every budget, all year round in the country’s most beautiful locations, remain compelling (if a little under-communicated).

So, where can we improve? Open, roundtable discussions highlighted the following areas:

• Enhance perceptions of holiday parks and communicate them better especially around accommodation range, value and all-year-round options
• Establish a lessons learned database (and provide guidance to parks on compliance, consents and contracts)
• Smaller parks need more assistance
• Realistic KPIs measuring the organisation’s and parks’ progress, plus better data for evaluating performance including environmental gains/impacts vs other sectors
• Continue to nurture our domestic audience (they are the bread and butter for many parks) despite central government’s focus on international visitors.
• The organisation needs to be nimble (10-year plans are too long as tourism industry and technology are changing quickly).
• Continue to advocate with central government on freedom camping issues.

These will form the basis of future work to update and futureproof HPNZ’s strategy and vision.

Keeping things entertaining and inventive, Emily tasked audiences with imagining what HPNZ might look like in 10 years time in the form of a TIME magazine cover. The creative juices flowed with often hilarious and always insightful results. Common themes of making memories, family-fun and protecting the environment emerged, as did the desire to become the country’s preferred accommodation provider leading the way. Check out the designs from across the events below.

Industry connections were also identified as a strength and opportunity, as illustrated  in insightful presentations from Bay of Plenty Tourism, Christchurch Airport, and longstanding partners Interislander and Campermate. Derek Batchelor-Cook – Interislander’s Domestic Trade Manager – reinforced our strong and mutually supportive relationship, one that will become more important as KiwiRail address their well-publicised ferry issues. Don’t forget that HPNZ guests are eligible for a 10% discount on ferry crossing all year round – another great reason for staying at your park!

Approachable and affable as ever, Justin Smith of Campermate reminded us of the importance of embracing new technology for promotion, including advice for using AI, and confirmed his organisation’s willingness to work closely with HPNZ members to get the most out of their listings.

Communicating the right messages authentically and effectively was also highlighted in the storytelling workshop run by regenerative tourism advocates and veteran travel writers Bennett and Slater. Sarah Bennett was thrilled to be back presenting to a HPNZ audience, ‘There’s so much to love about holiday parks and that’s why we’ve been involved for so long. Not least of all the fact that holiday park people are so great to spend time with – collaborative and down to earth with shared values that benefit everyone.’

Sarah and Lee presented a series of simple tips for identifying your parks’ stories, capturing the right imagery, how to share your tales with the right audience and dealing with the media.

There’s gold to be discovered in face-to-face meetings, as confirmed by the energy and enthusiasm on show at the North Island and South Island hui, and all of the insights gleaned. Rebecca Winterburn, manager of Creeksyde in Queenstown, and relative newcomer to the HPNZ family described the Christchurch meeting as, ‘… the perfect networking opportunity – informative, engaging and good fun. It was really nice to come together as a small group in an informal setting to share ideas, frustrations and everything in between.’

HPNZ does, however, recognise that time and resources are tight for many, especially for smaller parks who might struggle to attend in-person meetings. Bearing this in mind, Emily has committed to sharing a lot of this information online so everyone can be involved.

Stay tuned for a series of webinars scheduled coming in the next few months, where all members will be able to provide input on the HPNZ strategy refresh. Other sessions planned include a Bennett and Slater storytelling workshop and other topics that you’ve indicated learning more about.

Member involvement is key to our future success, and recent comments have been encouraging, ‘Loving the fresh approach of HPNZ since Emily has joined. Ka pai!’ and ‘Looking forward to growing our business and achieving our life plans with the knowledge we have a supportive industry group behind us.’

Please keep the feedback coming – good and bad – our strength lies in the ideas and collaboration of our members. He waka eke noa – we’re all in this together.