G’Day Group looks to spread its wings despite tourism acquisitions slowdown

G’Day Group looks to spread its wings despite tourism acquisitions slowdown

G’Day Group is looking to broaden its horizons following a record year of travel spend across Australia’s caravan and camping sector.

The holiday park operator has invested over $60m in acquisitions over the past 12 months. Among those deals include Beachfront Camping and Cottages Narooma, Coffin Bay Caravan Park and the Porepunkah Bridge Holiday Park in Victoria’s High Country.

Amanda Baldwin, the chief investment officer at G’Day Group, told The Australian that the company is on the lookout for “transformative” deals, despite the downturn of activity in the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market.

Amanda Baldwin at Caravan Industry Association of Australia (LinkedIn/Amanda Baldwin)

Baldwin expects Aussies to opt for more domestic trips as international airfares remain high and the cost of living crisis means households have to limit travel spend.

“Australians still have the appetite to travel but are looking at more affordable options, which is the sweet spot for our industry,” Baldwin told The Australian.

G’Day Group has an eyes-up approach, always looking for opportunity and transformative deals that will add significant scale or give us a distinct strategic advantage.

“While we’ve been able to find and execute these deals every two to three years, we remain active in the market for quality holiday park assets.

“We’re also increasing our focus on developing existing assets and investing around $80m to $100m per year.”

The turndown of M&A activity recently is attributable to capital constraints facing some buyers and the challenging financial environment, alongside rising insurance costs forcing some operators out of travel.

“The combined result has seen a softening in valuations,” she said.

“However, tourism fundamentals remain strong and this has ensured our industry has weathered these impacts relatively well when compared with other commercial property sectors like office and retail.”

Travel Weekly was told by a communications representative from G’Day Group that it does not currently have an official position on any specific targets for its acquisitions.

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