The uninitiated may snigger and crack jokes about barbequing au natural, but for the thousands of visitors to Katikati Naturist Park each year, it's all about chilling out and saying goodbye to body issues forever.

Spending your holiday in the nude is very relaxing, says Kevin Sampson who owns and operates the Bay of Plenty Naturist Park with wife Joan.

"Guests also get rid of a lot of hangs up about their body, especially women. They see that bodies come in all shapes and sizes and it doesn't really matter."

For those new to naturism, it's often one partner working to convince the other to try it, says Kevin. "Basically, most find that once they've taken the step and made the breakthrough they think 'why didn't we try it years ago'. We had a woman come through last weekend. It was her first time at a naturist place and she was very diffident but within an hour she had her clothes off and a couple of hours later was totally relaxed about it. She came back for a day visit yesterday."

An extraordinary career change

Running the naturist park is about as far away as you can get from Kevin's previous career as a financial analyst with The Treasury and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as it was then.

After 16 years in the capital and looking for a lifestyle change, the couple bought a motel in Marton in the late 1980s. Keen naturists themselves for many years, they saw the potential in establishing a naturist holiday park, something they had experienced and enjoyed in Europe. It was a point of difference and it fitted in with their lifestyle.

"Six years later, after some searching, a rather messy block of land sitting alongside a river in Katikati caught our eye and we decided to go for it.

"Our original objective was simply to develop a naturist business that created a living for us, but we have now moved well beyond that to a market leading position. The business has kept on growing and so have our ambitions."

Kevin and Joan have continually reinvested in their business. Accommodation facilities have expanded and now range from 71 camping sites, through on on-site caravans, kitchen cabins, self-contained units, to a park motel. They say this reinforces the strength of the holiday park model - accommodation options to suit all customers.

Guests like to spend a lot of time on-site so they've created a 'horticulture type' atmosphere with a wide variety of recreational activities. In the past two years they have added wireless internet, table tennis, outdoor chess, badminton, quoits and improved the sauna.

There's a strong environmental element to naturism explains Kevin, and the couple have tapped into this by investing in environmental care policies including an on-site sewage treatment system, solid waste recycling, minimisation of energy use and little chemical use.

They've also invested in the latest technology, but Kevin says they won't be moving to an online booking system. Taking bookings by phone and email not only gives the personal touch, it also ensures these experienced naturists can weed out the few individuals with the wrong attitude to naturism.

Guests keep coming back

About 20% of the park's visitors are international, with key markets the UK and The Netherlands. The balance are Kiwis. An incredible 76% of guests are return visitors and the average length of stay almost twice as high as the New Zealand holiday park average.

"Achieving high customer return rates is the key to success for any business and we have achieved this by offering a mix of attractive customer service policies," explains Kevin.

"Our approach is not to maximise short-term turnover by extracting maximum revenue from each customer visit, but to regard customers as long-term assets who return regularly and contribute financially for many years. Some people have been coming back every year since we opened and are more like family or close friends now.

"We also charge average holiday park prices for what our guests confirm are well above average facilities for the range and quality of what we offer. We want customers to consider they have received very good value for money, and not to have to pay more every time they want to do something from having a shower to playing mini-putt. And we don't charge peak prices. Better profitability comes from using our assets more effectively in off-peak times than by cramming people in at Christmas and New Year - most of our guests at Christmas and New Year also return for several visits at other times of the year."

Guests don't pay a deposit on booking and don't pay until they leave, which Kevin says encourages them to stay longer and cuts down on administration costs, as does not charging for recreational facilities.

It's a winning business formula for Katikati Naturist Park, a finalist in the 2010 Tourism Industry Awards. Revenue has continued to increase even during the global economic downturn.

The success of the park reverberates throughout the whole community, says Kevin

"Guests go out into the 'textile' world to buy supplies, and go to restaurants for dinner. The average local spend would be the same as any other holiday - they just do it quicker so they can get back here and dispense with needless clothes. Also, because of our uniqueness we attract 16,000 person nights of business per year which would not otherwise be coming to Katikati."

Kevin says naturism and 'nakations' - naked holidays -starting to take off again. "People are beginning to see through the media hype about having to have the perfect body. They realise they can relax a lot more when they hang out with other people naked."

www.katikati-naturist-park.co.nz