By Leon Georgiou
THE Pine Country Caravan Park was once again recognised for its innovation and marketing strategies last week as it won the 2021 G’day Group Business Game Changer Award.
It is the second time the Mount Gambier based caravan park has won the national award in three years.
Owner Nathan Seal said despite winning in 2019, he had focussed on expanding the caravan park’s digital marketing presence, with a new website and paid advertising across search engines and social media platforms.
Beyond that, Mr Seal explained that the award demonstrated how providing a great customer experience was a balancing act between strong marketing activities and great park facilities.
“The award looks holistically at your entire park,” he said.
“It’s all got to do with the overall concept of what you’re doing to better your park and operational excellence and experience for your customers.”
Subsequently, Mr Seal has continued working on upgrades throughout the park over the past twelve months, adding new accommodation options such as glamping tents and dog friendly cabins to cater to customers at multiple price points.
“We’ve added a jumping pillow, playground, painted all of our cabins inside and out, we’ve done new fixtures and furniture, updated the camp kitchens, updated security with a new boom gate and CCTV,” he said.
The Game Changer Award has been a positive piece of news for the Pine Country Caravan Park in what has been a difficult two years.
Like many businesses within the tourism industry, Covid travel restrictions have had a negative impact on business.
Mr Seal explained that the Victorian border closure in particular had impacted the number of tourists staying at the caravan park.
However, being a family run business had allowed Mr Seal and his wife Emma to weather the difficult economic conditions.
“We’re a family run and operated park which helps because we have our finger on the pulse,” he said.
“You know, it hasn’t been easy… I think everyone’s just hoping to get through this and we’re no different.
“It’s still been tough, but we’re just dying for the border to get open.”
