More than 30,000 freedom campers visited the city from November to June and spent about $3.4 million, according to figures gathered by the Dunedin City Council.
Two reports - one on the 2018-19 season and another on options for next year - will be presented to councillors at the planning and environment committee meeting today.
Council parks and recreation planner Stephen Hogg wrote both reports, which relied on information gathered through surveys and from the daily patrols of security contractors.
Each camper was estimated to have spent about $49 a night and stay for an average of 2.4 days.
If trends continue, that number is expected to increase by 25% next year.
According to the surveys there was a 25% increase in the number of campers staying at designated freedom camping sites in the past season.
A trial inner-city camping site at the Thomas Burn St car park was the most popular site in the city, and relieved pressure on the other sites - at the Warrington Domain and Ocean View Reserve.
Both sites had a decrease in visitors despite a 25% increase at unrestricted sites overall.
The Kensington Oval car park continued to be popular, recording an 11% increase in campers despite not being an official council site.
The number of complaints (135) made by the public and infringement notices (682) issued also increased from the previous year.
Overall $65,200 of the $106,200 in fines issued had been collected by the council.
Areas with high infringement rates were the south coast area, city centre and South Dunedin-St Clair, which accounted for about 90% of the fines issued.
This year, two rangers - funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment - were hired to improve awareness of the city's freedom camping rules and distribute surveys.
The second report recommends the council expand the community rangers programme from two to four rangers and continue the trial at the Thomas Burn St car park.
A review of the Camping Control Bylaw would be required if the council wanted to restrict or designate a specific area for freedom camping.
It is not due to be reviewed until 2025.
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Comments
Trying to put a positive spin on a problem. Firstly complaints hardly happen due to DCC inaction. Nearly every night for 6 months half a dozen to a dozen vans are outside the Kensington, most without a toilet- that there is more than 130. Secondly the gross spend of $3.4m sounds great, but dig a little deeper and it is not as rosy. For example, these guys would need to spend say $50 (about half of their Dunedin spend) on petrol to get here/leave. Less than 10% of that $50 stays in Dunedin (think taxes, excise, refiner, producer costs). Other spend should be analysed this way. Just because money flows through Dunedin does not mean it benefits Dunedin.
I wish the DCC actually analyses this issue with "actual costs vs benefits to Dunedinites" and not just headline numbers.