Image source @ Visual China
At the end of March, when it was the time of greening, Internet practitioner Guo Wei (pseudonym) met with friends and played a camping in the Elephant Heron Island Natural Park on the outskirts of Beijing.
"The tents, picnic mats, cooking utensils and other equipment in the camp were very well equipped, the weather was exceptional, there was a lake inside, we made a big pot of food, everyone ate and talked, and had a lot of fun."
Elephant Heron Island Natural Paradise Campground, image source @ Guowei
A tent, a meadow, accompanied by a table of exquisite food, breathing in the fresh outdoor air, enjoying the pleasure of physical and mental relaxation... During the May Day holiday, many people have packed up their equipment and started camping life outdoors.
Titanium Media App noted that whether it is a camping base or OTA platforms such as Ctrip and Fliggy, the recent camping orders have shown a rapid upward trend. According to Ctrip data, Ctrip camping travel orders increased by 5 times compared with the Qingming holiday during the May Day holiday, and the average daily search volume of related keywords in the station in April increased by about double that of the previous month.
Camping has not only become a popular outdoor leisure activity for young people, but also the camping economy behind it has attracted the attention of more and more practitioners.
Exquisite camping fire out of the circle
Camping, which was previously popular in Europe and the United States, and later arose in Japan and South Korea, deriving different categories, that is, camping is divided into three types: traditional camping, convenient camping and exquisite camping. Among them, the domestic "exquisite camping" trend is booming.
The so-called exquisite camping is a combination of "Glamorous Camping", also known as wild luxury, luxury camping, paying more attention to sophisticated equipment, as well as young, personalized experience, is the mainstream form of camping that young people like today.
Image source @ Visual China
How hot camping is, as can be seen from the little red book where Internet celebrities gather, searching for camping-related topics, up to 2.71 million notes, whether it is camp selection, camping strategy, or literary and artistic camping punch card photos, all convey poetry and the vision of a better life in the distance.
Image source @ Little Red Book
Camping enthusiast Ya Bin told Titanium Media App that it is addictive to really participate in camping. For him, camping is a great way of life, putting down his phone, making plans with his family and friends, and enjoying time setting up tents and having outdoor picnics.
"If you really want to experience camping, then start collecting equipment, preparing ingredients, choosing camp, and going through this process, when you lie in your tent and listen to the raindrops falling, you will have a sense of satisfaction." 」
Camping that follows the "rhythm" of young people has become a blue ocean market on the cusp.
According to enterprise investigation data, as of March 28, there were more than 41,000 "campground" related enterprises on the mainland. Among them, 8758 related enterprises were added in 2020, an increase of 227.52% year-on-year, achieving the largest growth rate in the past decade. In 2021, 21,000 new related enterprises were added, an increase of 139.50% year-on-year, which is the largest number of related enterprise registrations in the past decade.
Data source @ qi cha cha
At the same time, since the second half of last year, the camping track has also ushered in a capital boom, including Hi King, Noke Naturehike, ABC Camping Country and other outdoor lifestyle brands have been financing, and the financing stage is in the early stage.
Among these brands, Da hot wilderness and Hi King mainly focus on "bag-in" camping services, and Noke and ABC Camping Country focus on outdoor equipment services, of which Noike's camping equipment products have been sold in 86 countries and regions around the world such as Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom and Russia.
So, is camping favored by capital a good business? What are the current situations of industries that deserve attention behind them?
What is the "money scene" of the camping economy?
The popularity of camping has directly driven the hot sales of a series of camping equipment products.
Tmall data shows that in the first three months of this year, the turnover of camping equipment such as large tents, canopy, folding tables and chairs, and sleeping bags increased by more than twice as much as year-on-year. JD.com's sales data shows that since April this year, the search volume of JD Sports Camping products has increased by 145% compared with the same period last year, and the search volume from Beijing has increased by more than 7 times month-on-month.
Outdoor brand "Bo Xihe" marketing manager Lotte told Titanium Media App that generally speaking, camping equipment is mainly divided into nine "systems", the first is a mobile space system such as tents and canopy, the second is a mobile sleep system such as moisture-proof mats and sleeping bags, the third is a mobile kitchen system such as kitchen utensils and convenience stoves, and there are also mobile living room systems, mobile bedroom systems, mobile dining room systems, mobile lighting systems, winter heating systems and protective protection peripheral systems.
According to the Titanium Media App, tents are the core category of camping, and the high-end market has always been occupied by foreign brands such as Hilleberg, Black Diamond, Stephenson's Warmlite, Nordis, and its price is generally expensive. In the case of Nordis, a tent costs as much as 9,000 yuan, making domestic consumers unable to afford to buy it.
However, as the market is biased towards the masses, domestic consumers are turning to cost-effective Chinese camping brands.
Titanium media App to "outdoor camping tent" as a keyword search, on the Tmall platform, primitive people, Antarctic and other brands sold more than 10,000, the price is between 100 and 300 yuan, Mugaodi, Decathlon and other brands monthly sales of 6,000+, the average price of nearly 300 yuan.
Lotte told Titanium Media App: "Now the quality of domestic camping equipment is enough to match international brands, compared with European and American equipment brands, what is missing is only the brand premium." He believes that the advantages of domestic brands are very large, the industrial belt is rich, it is easier to reach the consumer demand of users, and the SKU is constantly expanded, while the purchase cost, logistics cost and time cost of foreign camping brands are higher, and the consumer experience is not very good.
At the same time, he said that since Japanese and Korean camping brands serve the entire Asian market, domestic brands are relatively worth learning from in research and development, so as to launch products that are more in line with market demand.
In fact, domestic camping equipment products, including Mugaodi and Nuke, have become the first choice of domestic consumers and are also sought after in overseas markets. "Consumers are more willing to buy all the camping equipment from a brand owner, so brand owners, including Bo Xihe, are doing all-category research and development to meet market demand." Rakuten told Titanium Media App.
For equipment brands, the repurchase rate is a major problem. Lotte said that the solution has two aspects, on the one hand, it is to increase the SKU and enhance product power, on the other hand, it is to seize the consumer's mind through offline activities, community and brand promotion through new media channels, and generate repurchase based on the trust of the brand.
Nowadays, there are still many problems in the camping equipment track. Due to the crazy influx of merchants in a short period of time, and most of the new brands choose e-commerce channels to sell, the price war, the quality of products is uneven, which has had a negative impact on the development of the industry. Lotte told Titanium Media App: "Now the market is in an extensive growth stage, it is bound to eliminate some unscrupulous brands, only companies that do omni-channel, focus on R & D and design, and have customers in mind can survive." ”
In addition to the camping equipment market, campsite operations are also a major industry. Lotte told Titanium Media App: "In the entire camping industry chain, the camping brand and the camp are complementary to each other, the brand company is more about exporting products and content, and the camp is like a capillary, better to undertake consumers." ”
Taking the outdoor camping lifestyle brand "Hot Wild" as an example, it attracted the attention of the capital market in November last year, receiving two rounds of financing in a row and becoming a popular player on the track.
In terms of operation mode, Da hot wilderness cooperates with owners, hotels and tourist attractions with land to carry out ground cooperation and distribution. Up to now, the number of operating camps in the country has exceeded 20, distributed in Sanya, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Huizhou, Zhuhai, Fuzhou, Wuhan and other places, and the revenue has reached tens of millions of dollars by August last year.
Like other brands, the hot wilderness has also experienced a phase of increasing domestic camping.
Shi Zhengnan, a partner of the hot wilderness, told titanium media App: "2018 to 2019 is a relatively important time node, when the scene of young people to obtain information has changed, in the past, it was directly through the OTA platform to find consumer information, and then it became to pay attention to Content-based platforms such as Xiaohongshu, B station, and Zhihu to make consumption decisions, which brought new opportunities to service companies that marketed and obtained customers through content platforms in the subdivision field." ”
By the end of 2020, he recalled, there were only 30,000 or 50,000 notes on camping in the Little Red Book, but now it has exceeded 2.7 million, more than 50 times. "The first stop of the hot wilderness was in Sanya, using the form of checking in with a bag, when two Little Red Book bloggers from Beijing were invited to shoot the content for dissemination, and the result was a sudden explosion."
Shi Zhengnan said that those who love to play camping are young people who love life and are willing to share, and have appeals to life aesthetics and life rituals, which is highly compatible with Xiaohongshu users.
Relying on the traffic explosion triggered by the Little Red Book, the hot wilderness received the first wave of dividends. Founder Zhu Xian once said that the hot wilderness has been a state of traffic overflow from the very beginning, and nearly 70% of its users are from Xiaohongshu.
After a year or two of market changes, the portrait of camping users has undergone some changes.
"In the past, young people after 95 were playing, but now including the post-70s and post-80s have joined in, and family trips around first-tier cities have become more and more frequent, and camping has become a way for the public to consume outdoors." Shi Zhengnan told Titanium Media App.
Lotte said that the current camping is concentrated in the post-80s and post-90s groups, of which the post-80s belong to parent-child consumption. In addition, in the past, men were the main consumer group, but now the proportion of women is getting higher and higher, they have strong spending power, and they have the pursuit of a better life.
On the consumer side, there are three kinds of camping: traditional camping, convenience camping and exquisite camping.
Ya Bin recalled to the Titanium Media App: "Before 2020 to the middle of 2021, there are three main types of camping consumption, the first is the membership system, consumers pay 8,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan a year, you can play unlimited times; the second is to spend 300 yuan to 500 yuan to buy a single camping; the third is an open camp, you can camp for 200 yuan, if you spend overnight, you may add 100 yuan, and the camping company will provide fireworks shows, hot air balloons and other services." ”
To do camping camps, it is indispensable to the cost of manpower and camp rental.
Cui Lianbo, the founder of Hi King, has publicly stated that in the camp management plan exported by Hi King, a single camp sets up 20 to 30 tents, the price of a single tent is about 12,000 yuan, and the overall investment is expected to be 600,000 yuan, the gross profit margin can reach 60% under normal operation, and the camp generally returns to the current cycle of 6 to 8 months.
Titanium media App noted that with the increase of cooperative camps, players are more inclined to build their own camps, on the one hand, they can provide better services, on the other hand, the cost of self-construction is lower than the cost of running expenses, which is also a major trend in the market.
At present, the lease period of the self-operated camp signed by Dahe Wilderness in Beijing is 20 years, the first phase of infrastructure construction has been completed and will be put into use, and many self-operated camps across the country are under planning and construction. Shi Zhengnan said that during the May Day period, two camps in the Beijing area were opened and basically fully booked. "Even if there are sporadic chargebacks due to the epidemic, they can be replenished at any time."
Take Beijing Fangshan Cloud 516 Camp as an example, the camp is located in Hebei Town, Fangshan District, the hot wilderness online booking shows that on statutory holidays, the price of up to four people can stay in a tent with a bag is 2696 yuan, including chopping firewood, campfire, barbecue and other supporting services. From the perspective of consumer audience, it is mainly tourists in Beijing.
Hot Wilderness Beijing Cloud 516 Camp
"I think the biggest cost of camp operation comes from labor costs, depreciation of camping equipment, utility taxes, etc., although the expenditure is quite large, but it is the peak season, and the merchants will soon be able to realize the return of the cost." Lotte said.
However, like camping products, camping camp operations also have the problem of repurchase rates.
Shi Zhengnan told titanium media App that the hot wilderness is about to launch the camping equipment rental business, and will also cooperate with some well-known brands for equipment. "Once cardmembers have entered the camp, they can rent our gear and bring their own ingredients to experience camping. There are only zero and countless times of camping, we provide bag check-in to let users fall in love with camping first, and then through the non-bag check-in service and product form, to produce repurchase. ”
He said that there is a strong connection between nature and outdoor life, there are scenes of equipment and facilities, scenes of city parks, shopping malls, cafes, bars... From space to service to experience to brand, there are many ways to make money. "The camp is just a gateway to the link, and ultimately it's an outdoor lifestyle."
This means that the commercial form of camping can be more diversified, "camping + study", "camping + performing arts" camping + performing arts, "camping + sports"... In the future, camping camps are expected to continue to move towards a diversified and innovative path.
At the same time, the homogenization of the one-time wild luxury experience of living in the bag is still serious, from the camp decoration style, to the entertainment project, to the flavor picnic, etc., without differentiation, can only fight the price war to maintain the old customers, which has a negative impact on the entire industry.
On the whole, based on the strong driving force of the market demand side, merchants have entered the market to camp "money scene", but it has also exposed the chaos of barbaric growth, how to establish brand barriers and better retain customers, which is a problem that current practitioners need to think about.
What enlightenment can the foreign camping industry bring?
European and American camping culture has prevailed for a hundred years, the industry is more mature, and the scale is much larger than that in China.
Shi Zhengnan told the Titanium Media App: "The camping penetration rate in Europe and the United States is very high, 70 or 80 million people will play at least once a year, in terms of infrastructure, the domestic statistics are about 2,000 camps, and the US camps alone have about 30,000, and its quality is better than that in China." ”
According to the online data website Statista, in 2019, the market revenue of camping camps (including campervan land) in the United States reached 7.92 billion US dollars, or about 52 billion yuan. According to Ai Media Consulting, the domestic camping camp market size may reach 35.46 billion yuan in 2022.
Comparing the two data, it can be seen that the domestic market still has a lot of room for development.
In terms of business model, the road explored by European and American camping is the camp resort, and there are many national parks, which provide a good breeding ground for the breeding of business formats. For example, Richmond North / Kings Dominion KOA camp in Dorswell, USA, 0.6 miles from Kings Dominion Amusement Park, provides a seasonal outdoor pool and barbecue facilities, and is one of the top 10 campsites in the United States.
Richmond North / Kings Dominion KOA, image source@Booking official website
According to the Titanium Media App, the camp is operated by the American camping giant KOA, which has a 50-year history of development. According to the data, the KOA campsite chain spreads across the North American continent, with more than 500 campgrounds and more than 60,000 camp spaces, making it the largest campsite chain enterprise in the North American continent.
The improvement of camp facilities and play projects is an important weight to attract tourists, and each KOA camp will have camp spaces, wooden houses, cable TV, bicycle rental, campfires, mini golf, swimming pools, fishing, rowing, wireless networks and other projects to meet the individual needs of tourists.
It is understood that all of KOA's camps have guard patrol areas outside, and the outermost side will be protected by a fence to prevent dangerous animals from approaching and harming tourists, so that they can play the project with peace of mind.
At the same time, based on the huge consumer population, only 24 US dollars per year, you can enjoy KOA membership services, and KOA also provides RV rental, regular and irregular preferential activities, especially KOA has also set up an online community to facilitate members to understand information and communicate with peers.
In addition, KOA uses the franchise system to expand the camp, which has both strict requirements for brand franchisees and a lure of huge profits. According to the Titanium Media App, KOA has a special software for the camp reservation system, Kamp Sight registration & reservation software, which is convenient for KOA Group to unify management and services for franchisees.
Ubiquitous campsites, as well as a range of quality services, have built KOA's moat, making it an unrivaled industry giant.
Of course, it is not advisable to copy koa's business path, taking caravan camping as an example, in 2015, more than 8.5 million people in the United States used RVs, almost every 10 families with a car owned a RV, driving it to play camping has long become a habit of Americans, and entering KOA camps also saves additional RV rental costs. However, in China, caravans are still a new thing, the entry threshold is not low, and the imperfection of relevant policies and regulations has also made caravan self-driving difficulties such as difficulty in getting on the license and on the road.
Fortunately, the mainland tourism resources are very rich, the vacation around the city can be driven to go, some travel agencies also provide long-distance self-driving camping services, not to mention the domestic resorts, cultural tourism real estate projects are numerous, can increase the "camp project" to generate income, to a certain extent, but also to solve the problem of high RV threshold, domestic camps scarce problem.
Shi Zhengnan told Titanium Media App that due to the different industrial environments at home and abroad, its development path is also different.
"For example, such as the difference in educational concepts, in European and American countries, from an early age to indoctrinate teenagers with the concept of natural education, participate in activities in camps, exercise their skills, it is in the way of outdoor survival experience into the public life. Asia is different, preferring a sophisticated camping experience. He said.
The earlier development of "exquisite camping" Japanese and Korean brands has more reference value for domestic practitioners.
For example, the Japanese outdoor sports brand Snow Peak, Osaka outdoor camping brand DOD, the former from camping to lifestyle, in addition to the production and sale of outdoor lifestyle-related goods, but also operate a number of self-operated campgrounds, the business is involved in luxury camping, natural lifestyle resorts, business consulting, micro-houses, real estate and other fields; the latter focuses on fashion trend design and people-friendly price positioning, especially the core category tents, so that it is convenient to set up, easy to disassemble, And constantly design and develop a variety of camping needs of the tent, become a brand recognized and consumed by young people, it also opened the first self-operated campsite DOD CAMP PARK KYOTO in April this year, to seize the minds of consumers by getting close to the brand.
Image source @DOD the official website
A number of domestic camping equipment brands, but also to create a lifestyle brand concept, to expand business lines, the most lacking or technical accumulation and brand precipitation, the outbreak of time.
Titanium Media App noted that domestic policies are also continuing to guide the development of the outdoor and camping industry, and the trend of compliance is becoming more and more obvious.
In June 2021, the "Opinions of the Ministry of Commerce and 17 other departments on strengthening the construction of the county-level commercial system to promote rural consumption" mentioned that the development of country houses, self-driving caravan camps, wooden house camps, tent camps, etc., to improve the supporting facilities for life services.
In October of the same year, Huzhou City held a symposium on the scenicization of camping camps in the city, and jointly issued four documents in China, including the "Scenic Construction and Service Standards for Camping Camps in Huzhou City", which is also the first standard system for the camping industry.
"The combination of cultural tourism and the camping industry is very high, and according to my understanding, relevant departments, including the Cultural and Tourism Bureau, the Rural Agriculture Bureau, the Public Security Fire Department, and the Safety Supervision Bureau, are also actively promoting the development of the camping industry." Shi Zhengnan told Titanium Media App.
It is worth noting that after the camping fire, some homestay operators have also developed camping business to increase occupancy rates and expand revenue sources. Shi Zhengnan said that people living in a tent is not just needed, but the interaction between people and nature is just needed. The function of homestays and hotels is still to "stay", and camping is to enjoy the process of building space, social activities, and getting close to nature, and there is no competitive relationship between the two, but more of a complementary relationship.
Whether the rising camping trend in China can promote the normalization of the camping economy remains to be seen, but most practitioners still want to do fine water and long-term business.
"I think camping will continue to grow at a rapid rate of at least 3 to 5 years, and as people's understanding of camping deepens, a walk-and-go camping on weekends will become a very natural way of life, which is also experienced by countries such as Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea." Lotte said optimistically. (This article was first published on the Titanium Media App, and the author |.) Liu Muzong)