Tasmania's parks and wildlife service say it prefers a 'soft' approach against ghost camps after the problematic behaviour was reported at its campgrounds over the Easter holiday.
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Up to 68 per cent of Examiner survey respondents labelled the behaviour as cheeky after campers took to social media to vent their frustrations with the ghost camp trend.
Ghost camping is a known issue at state-run campgrounds and refers to campers setting up empty tents, days and weeks before their arrival, to reserve the best free camping sites.
How should parks and wildlife service tackle the issue?
The Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service (TWPS) has been urged by the public to take action.
A TPWS spokesperson said the service should consider the ghost camp regulations that have been introduced in other states and territories.
This includes handing out fines to campers who leave camp sites vacant and unoccupied for 24 hours, an approach adopted in New South Wales.
But they said 'soft compliance' was preferred.
"The first preference to is to educate the public and use soft compliance approaches and booking systems to regulate and deter 'ghost camping'," the spokesperson said.
"The TPWS will consider other jurisdictional approaches to regulate this activity."
Ghost camping has been a long-standing issue at campgrounds in national parks, conservation areas and reserves, especially at the east coasts Bay of Fires Conservation Area.
It is an issue in other state and territory national parks, where it also refers to no-show bookings.
This is where campers book and pay for sites but fail to turn up without cancelling, which means other campers are unable to stay at popular 'fully-booked' campgrounds despite the vacant sites.
