A major Australian holiday park company has gone on a spending spree in the Northern Territory, snapping up three properties over the last 12 months.

The G'Day Group's purchases include Kings Canyon Resort, Glen Helen Resort and the MacDonnell Range Holiday Park in Alice Springs, as well as the El Questro resort just over the border in Western Australia.

Chief executive Grant Wilckens said the firm was happy with the $75 million spend — $60m of which went on the NT businesses.

"The reality was that the portfolio that we bought from Delaware North – which is our El Questro, Kings Canyon and a property in Sydney – was probably underinvested," he said.

Mr Wilckens said the American conglomerate ran airports and football stadiums in the United States.

"COVID-19 has obviously smashed those markets and so they were quite keen to exit," he said.

But Mr Wilckens said he did not expect tourism in the NT to be back at full strength anytime soon.

"It looks quite challenging," he said.

"I'd be quite concerned that the Territory is going to be probably constrained and closed for much longer than what we'd like.

"I'd love to see it opened around Christmas, but it looks like to me that you'll be closed for for much longer, which is not great … for our businesses, obviously — it's probably good for health and good for communities."

Nonetheless, Mr Wilckens said he was optimistic about the enduring popularity of caravanning in Australia.

Big player, big market

Tourism Central Australia chief executive Danial Rochford said investment in the region was long overdue.

"I think that bodes well for the future for the region — to have such a large player in our industry invest in Central Australia is great news," he said.

"[They're] not only buying properties, but putting upwards of $20m [into] improvements, which is certainly what was needed."

Mr Rochford said that the caravan industry was booming because of the pandemic.

"Jayco, the major caravan manufacturer in Australia, would make normally about 40,000 caravans in a year," he said.

Industry 'on its knees'

Mr Rochford also welcomed the NT's fourth round of tourism vouchers.

Under the scheme, the NT government matches an individual's $200 spend, which increases to $400 if the person travels 400 kilometres from home.

While he supported the scheme, Mr Rochord said more would need to be done to help the embattled tourism sector.

"Our industry has been and still is on its knees as a result of the pandemic," he said.

"We've been saying for some weeks now that 2020 was bad, but 2021 was much worse.

Mr Rochford said that there was little doubt as to the strategy behind the timing of the fourth round of tourism vouchers.

"What we're going to be facing over the next few weeks and months is a very long and very low visitation period," he said.

"It is going to have a huge impact to our industries."

Mr Rochford said Tourism Central Australia would advocate for ongoing hardship payments rather than one-off support payments.

"What our call has been … is to provide a targeted hardship support fund, somewhere between $5,000-$10,000 a month," he said.