Old Techo wrote: Most were on the side of a busy highway and very unappealing for an overnight.

This is true.
Though we freecamp a bit for usually 3 days absolute max we never ever stop at those beside the highway or close to towns for both noise and security reasons. But there have been exceptions…

Never had anything stolen from us at a free camp but there are many who will steal anything they can.
Caravan parks do themselves a disservice by having fee structures that do deter a few people from visiting, I just want a site, power and water.

One park we stayed at in WA wanted to charge us more because the site had a glimpse over water we negated on that option and were told that sites with a view of the dunes or bush were the same price; we moved on….
So I believe free campers are killing free camping and caravan parks are shooting themselves in the foot…

Yes Jock, those choosing caravan parks are exercising their freedom of choice, and this market will continue for a long time to come.

Why do do the magazines push free camping? Because “Free camping” or free anything on the cover of the magazine is a great sales gimmick. It sells magazines, and they are exercising their freedom of choice in marketing method.

Have you ever seen one of these magazines, and opened it up to find fee charging sites included? They use the excuse it is freedom not free of cost. They also use promotions like “free camp” on a photo on Facebook. Yesterday it was one of the Devils Marbles, which is of course low fee honesty box camping. This use of Free in both media is misleading, and people will go there expecting not to pay so may well not seek out the honesty box. Not a good result.

Motherhen wrote:Yes Jock, those choosing caravan parks are exercising their freedom of choice, and this market will continue for a long time to come.

Why do do the magazines push free camping? Because “Free camping” or free anything on the cover of the magazine is a great sales gimmick. It sells magazines, and they are exercising their freedom of choice in marketing method.

Have you ever seen one of these magazines, and opened it up to find fee charging sites included? They use the excuse it is freedom not free of cost. They also use promotions like “free camp” on a photo on Facebook. Yesterday it was one of the Devils Marbles, which is of course low fee honesty box camping. This use of Free in both media is misleading, and people will go there expecting not to pay so may well not seek out the honesty box. Not a good result.

Well said M.H.

Jock

jock wrote:

Motherhen wrote:Yes Jock, those choosing caravan parks are exercising their freedom of choice, and this market will continue for a long time to come.

Why do do the magazines push free camping? Because “Free camping” or free anything on the cover of the magazine is a great sales gimmick. It sells magazines, and they are exercising their freedom of choice in marketing method.

Have you ever seen one of these magazines, and opened it up to find fee charging sites included? They use the excuse it is freedom not free of cost. They also use promotions like “free camp” on a photo on Facebook. Yesterday it was one of the Devils Marbles, which is of course low fee honesty box camping. This use of Free in both media is misleading, and people will go there expecting not to pay so may well not seek out the honesty box. Not a good result.

Well said M.H.

Jock

Hear Hear….

I stopped buying magazines because of what I believe is syndication and media hype and hubris. They are really trying to sell magazines and will do anything they can to do that and becuase a lot of people see the word “Free” and assume it means “gratis” so they buy the mag only to discover that “Free” does not actually mean that something is free it means that you are free to choose…
Now did any of that makes sense? Not really – and thats what they rely on to sell magazines promoting free camping. Ther problem is that diehard freecampers also seem to be in the demographic that want everything totally free and just dont get it that at some time somehow someone has to pay for the overheads of freecamping…