According to the data center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, during the Five Days of the May Day holiday this year, 160 million domestic tourists traveled across the country. Among them, camping continues to be hot, and the more niche and exquisite way of camping with a motorhome has become a new choice for more and more people.
RV + Camping May Day leisure travel circle fans new choice
At 7 p.m., Ms. Cai and her family and friends were preparing food while playing the piano and singing, and next to them, there were several overnight RVs parked, and this year's May Day holiday, they chose to rent a car to camp and experience a different way of traveling.
Ms. Cai they rent a caravan, a night to 1680 yuan, each caravan has three beds, can live 4 to 6 people, in their view, compared to the hotel, the RV is much more cost-effective, the experience is also very special.
Motorhome camping is hot, RV camps are also in high demand, parking spaces are extremely sought-after, whether it is a long-running old RV camp or a new camp that has just opened, this holiday is booked early.
Ou Haiyan, head of a RV camp in Shenzhen: We are more than 10,000 square meters, which can accommodate 36 RVs parked, and about half a month ago on May Day this year, all the parking spaces in the camp were fully booked. This has not been the case before, and this year it is particularly hot.
Favorable policies continue to reach new highs in RV sales
Benefiting from the rapid growth of the domestic camping industry, the RV industry, which is most closely linked to camping, is also ushering in new opportunities, coupled with the continuous policy benefits, domestic RV sales continue to rise, repeatedly hitting new highs. Wang Zhihao is a veteran of caravan camping, and after experiencing caravan camping abroad, he fell in love with this way of traveling. After returning to China, Wang Zhihao bought a motorhome of his own, and as long as he had time on the weekend, he would drive a caravan to take his family out to camp.
With the increase in RV camping enthusiasts, the RV sales market has also heated up. According to the data released by the China Automobile Dealers Association, in 2021, the annual sales of domestic self-propelled caravans reached 12,582 units, an increase of 43.2% year-on-year, with an average monthly sales volume of more than 1,000 units; 3,543 caravans were traded; in the first quarter of 2022, the cumulative sales of caravans were 2,425 units, an increase of 17% year-on-year, and the sales volume ranked highest in the same period in the past five years.
Ding Xiongjun, chairman of a RV co., LTD. in Shenzhen: In 2020, our first RV came out, and now more than 100 have been sold, with a RV sales growth rate of nearly 100% per year, and the entire Chinese RV sales market has grown by more than 40% in each year in the past three years.
Motorhomes are mainly divided into self-propelled and trailer-mounted, self-propelled motorhomes refer to motorized vehicles that have their own mobility and can rely on their own traction to move forward, which is relatively more convenient. Unlike self-propelled motorhomes, trailers have no power on their own and require additional vehicles to tow them. The more common light trailer caravans on the market are favored by some consumers for their low price, spacious and comfortable interior area.
In order to better meet the needs of volkswagen driving caravan travel and promote the development of new caravan tourism formats, from April 1, the Ministry of Public Security's newly revised "Regulations on the Application and Use of Motor Vehicle Driving Licenses" was officially implemented, and the driving license will be added to the light tractor trailer quasi-driving type (C6), and since then the light trailer caravan has a driving specification on the road.
Few camps, imperfect facilities have become a bottleneck in the development of the caravan industry
During the interview, the reporter learned that the heat of caravan tourism is rising due to factors such as less contact with personnel and can reduce the risk of epidemic transmission, but at present, the construction of campsites supporting caravans in China is still in its infancy, and there are many pain points and difficulties.
Zhao Qian is not only a veteran RV player, but also a RV camp designer. Six years ago, Zhao Qian had his own caravan, but the frequency of use was not high, mainly because of the small number and low density of domestic caravan camps.
For motorhome enthusiasts, a motorhome is a mobile home, and a motorhome camp is a haven of home. In addition to water, electricity and sewage treatment facilities, some supplies and recreational services are also required in the camps. However, due to the nature of land use and land planning policies, the current domestic caravan camps that can be used for caravan stationing and supply are still far from the European and American countries and regions where the caravan market is more mature in terms of popularization and convenience.
Invest big, pay off slowly, and the RV camp is struggling to survive
It is understood that as an emerging industry, the pre-construction investment of the caravan camp is large, and the return on investment is slow. At present, the domestic caravan camps are mainly based on personal investment, and from the overall operation situation, there are only a few profitable caravan camps. Ou Haiyan's RV camp has been in operation as early as 2017, but due to many uncontrollable factors and low rental fees, it has not returned the cost so far.
Ou Haiyan, head of a caravan camp in Shenzhen: We now have some uncontrollable factors, the first is the epidemic, and the second is that the impact of the weather on us is very large. So we don't have a way to normalize the revenue of camp operations now, and we expect that it may take at least three years to return the cost.
Industry insiders believe that in addition to actively exploring diversified profit methods in operation, continuously innovating services to increase user stickiness, and strengthening upstream and downstream industrial collaboration, caravan camps also need to rely on government policy support to promote the rapid development of caravan camps.
(CCTV Finance)