Qingming holiday is a very hot camping market, "May Day" small long holiday is still eye-catching.
According to the holiday consumption data released by a number of travel platforms, the search volume and order volume related to camping during the "May Day" period increased significantly. Data released by Tongcheng Travel showed that the popularity of "camping" related travel searches increased by 117% month-on-month. According to Qunar platform data, the number of bookings for camping-related products (accommodation, travel) is 3 times that of 2021, and the sales of park tickets that can camp have increased by more than 40% year-on-year.
However, under the background of tightening the prevention and control policies of the new crown pneumonia epidemic in many places, camping players around the world have also adjusted their camping plans accordingly.
Pang Lei, a post-90s camping player who lives in Beijing, noticed that many campgrounds in Beijing were temporarily closed due to the epidemic during the "May Day" period, even the campsites and country parks that can welcome individual customers have also reduced the flow of passengers under the epidemic prevention and control regulations of "limited, reservation, and wrong peak", and decided to "still not go, at home can also simulate the feeling of camping, such as directly using a cassette stove, gas cans to cook hot pot, storage is more convenient than induction cookers."
On the social platform, there are also many players who share the layout of "camping at home", whether it is setting up a tent on the balcony, introducing the potted plants on the flower trellis as "outdoor scenery", or turning on a camp light, using a mocha pot to make a cup of coffee after dinner, every scene with a sense of camping atmosphere, is inseparable from the "cooperation" of several equipment.
It is worth noting that "camping at home" is not a "stopgap measure" to deal with the epidemic, and the "moving camping" that has emerged since 2020 is originally intended to "move" home life to the outdoors. Compared with the traditional camping that emphasizes wild fun and convenience, moving camping pays more attention to the scene, atmosphere and sense of ceremony of camping, which not only increases outdoor comfort, but also lays the groundwork for the integration of camping style into daily life and urban formats.
Omelet table in the living room
At the beginning of 2019, a group of moving camping photos on the social platform refreshed Pang Lei's cognition of camping, "In addition to the flowery and green fast-opening tent, there are so many options for camping equipment." Soon after, Pang Lei bought a set of black camping equipment, including tents, canopys, and camping tables and chairs.
Pang Lei likes to design chic niche equipment, and is willing to spend time discovering different equipment styles. Campsites, e-commerce platforms, offline stores in the same city, and newly opened outdoor equipment stores in traveling cities are all equipment purchase channels for Pang Lei. In the past two years, Pang Lei has successively "sought" two tents, two canopy, 6 camping chairs, 4 tables, 3 sets of stove cookers and a number of small accessories, and even daily clothing has begun to move closer to the outdoor style.
According to the different use scenarios, moving camping equipment can often be divided into sleep, living room, lighting, storage and other systems, and each system will be subdivided into a variety of equipment. For example, tents, air cushions, sleeping bags, pillows, carpets, etc., can be classified as sleep systems.
As moving camping deepens, the line between "home" and "camping" begins to blur for some players.
"Compared with general furniture, camping equipment is easier to disassemble and move. Many of the post-90s friends I know will directly use the moon chair and egg roll table in their lives, which can maintain the state of 'always on the road', and it is easy to change the style of the family. Camper Zhang Yanwei, founder of the "OWLET Little Owl" camping store, said.
In the view of Liu Tingting, founder of the outdoor lifestyle platform "One Tent", the rise of domestic moving camping means that people have begun to look at the camping itself.
"In the past 20 years, camping has been a supporting application for outdoor sports such as mountaineering and hiking, which is prepared for people to go further and deeper in the natural environment to challenge nature, and the camping equipment is also based on practicality, focusing on safety and convenience." Since 2020, when the campsite itself becomes a travel destination, the function of camping equipment will also shift to the direction of life and leisure, and it will be easier to integrate into daily life. For example, when camping parties are held in various places, we find that friends in Guangdong will roast suckling pigs and make bacon fried rice in the camp at three o'clock in the morning, so that the scene of life is impossible to appear in the hiking camp. Liu Tingting said.
Behind the "one account is hard to find"
The quick out of the circle of moving camping also brings hot outdoor brands such as Snow Peak, Great White Bear, Noke, MuGao Flute, Black Deer, and Fire Maple.
"There is a very interesting phenomenon that on the online trading platform, a lot of second-hand camping equipment can be sold at the original price, because there is no stock at all." Pang Lei said.
Liu Tingting also has the same feeling about the sought-after degree of second-hand equipment, "We have built a second-hand trading group for friends who have participated in a tent activity, this group has been very active, in general, the transfer information has just been sent, and the equipment will be 'secondless'".
Why is camping gear so sought-after?
An important factor is that many domestic camping equipment manufacturers have limited production capacity and are still unable to bear the strong demand on the consumer side.
Taking Vindale, founded in 2012 as an example, Vidalido is an outdoor brand in Xiamen that integrates R&D, production and sales, and is jointly created by Yang Dachun, Lin Canfeng and Zheng Feni. According to Zheng Feni, before 2020, most of the tents, canopys and other products designed and produced by Vidalido were sold overseas.
"In 2019, there were more than 80 employees, and at that time, the domestic market did not have much interest in casual style camping products, until the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the demand for domestic camping products increased significantly, coupled with the sharp decline in export orders, our main direction of attack turned back to China, and every year we are expanding our product line, and this year, the number of employees has increased to more than 200." Zheng Fei Ni said.
Despite this, in the online store of Vidalido, there are still many "out of stock" and "off the shelves" products.
"Some products that are still on the shelves, consumers order this month, until next month to ship, our production capacity to keep up with consumer demand, or a little difficult." Zheng Fei Ni said.
In Liu Tingting's view, many outdoor brands are currently facing a dilemma, "now that camping is hot, if the brand does not increase production capacity, it will miss a wave of dividend period in vain; but if it is to increase labor for orders and develop new factories, once the demand for future camping is reduced, the previous investment and inventory pressure will bring new problems."
Experience Front:Camping 'Strongholds' in the City
Individual consumers, campsites and camping equipment experience stores, is the main customer group of Vidalido in the past two years in China, which also makes Zheng Feni pay attention to the offline experience store format, "In the past, the number of outdoor goods stores was not much, taking the specialty store route, clothing and equipment piled up everywhere, the sense of atmosphere is not strong." After the rise of moving camping in 2020, outdoor equipment stores have gradually increased, and more attention has been paid to the creation of camping scenes in the store layout and product display."
Walk into the Little Owl Camping Shop in Beijing's 798 Art District, and in the 70-square-meter space, you can see a camping dining scene consisting of an egg roll table, folding chairs, and outdoor stove cooking utensils. "In a relatively complete scene, guests are more aware of what they need, and the current camping tables and chairs are the best-selling in the store, which is also related to the strong experience." Zhang Yanwei said.
Just after the 2022 Qingming holiday, at the junction of Jiangfu Park and Langyuan Station in Beijing, photographer Zhou Shuxin and two friends they met while camping opened a new outdoor collection shop. In order to simulate the outdoor environment of camping, in addition to arranging green plant decorations in the indoor scene area, they also asked someone to lay a thick layer of rubble on the ground of the outdoor posing area.
"In the future, we plan to launch a hand-brewed coffee package, where guests can make a cup of coffee with our assistance from the camping stove and mocha pot, and the same equipment can also be purchased in the store." Zhou Shuxin said.
"The equipment physical store is like a camping 'stronghold' embedded in the city, which not only pre-empts the camping experience, but also provides physical space for friends who love camping." Zhou Shuxin said.
It is worth noting that at the moment of increasing camping fever, the exploration of offline experience stores of camping equipment is also a microcosm of the development process of urban camping. In the city's densely populated business districts and cultural and creative parks, cafes and pop-up shops with camping topics have become a new social focus for young people.
City camp is a business launched by Liu Tingting's entrepreneurial team, in her opinion, camping has become a "marketing code" for business circles and brands, "many brands and shopping centers have found us, hoping to add camping elements in promotional activities, the city camp we do, much like the camping theme of the city market, provides consumers with a direct understanding of the camping lifestyle channels, but whether this part of the customer group can be precipitated, but also after they have truly experienced the camp life to know."
Putting an end to "barbaric growth"
During the "May Day" holiday, two activities of "One Account" in Beijing were postponed due to the epidemic.
"The uncertainty caused by the epidemic has indeed affected income. In the past one or two years, we have held dozens of camping parties across the country, most of the income comes from offline, this year's offline activities are less, the income is naturally reduced, we are still considered to be asset-light entrepreneurship, those who have invested more in the entity, may encounter more problems. Liu Tingting said.
Zhou Shuxin once calculated an account, plus the rent of the previous months, the wild outdoor collection store from decoration to opening, has invested more than 1.3 million yuan.
"We have been open for less than a month, this year's 'May Day' holiday, originally planned to operate well, now affected by the epidemic, we can only close the store first, waiting for further news." Zhou Shuxin said.
Since the outbreak of the epidemic, the camping industry has embarked on the fast track of development, but the industry characteristics of "relying on the sky to eat" and the barbaric growth of the market outbreak period have also caused some chaos in the field of camping equipment.
For example, due to the popularity of the topic and the effect of "filming", "moving camping" breeds the soil of excessive comparison under the momentum of some social media.
"Now you can often hear the so-called equipment 'contempt chain', in fact, the real senior players in the equipment is relatively light, tens of thousands of yuan of tents, a few yuan of wind rope, in the end are the tools to express their own style, and why do you have to distinguish between high and low." I have also met parents who spend money to buy equipment for their children in order to make a splash at school activities, and this kind of atmosphere is really undesirable. Pang Lei said.
Zheng Feni found that a "Indian Pyramid Automatic Account" launched by her company can find a number of imitations on the e-commerce platform.
"We spent two years to develop new products, some foundries have imitated imitations in a few months, the quality is not high, but the price is much lower than ours, such products on the shelves, bring us a lot of trouble." We have reflected this situation to the platform side, but many merchants have attached their own brand labels on the products after purchasing from the foundry, and the platform cannot distinguish them, and the 10 complaints can often only be successful. We had to contact a lawyer to deal with the issue, but the legal process was lengthy and has not yet come to fruition. Zheng Fei Ni said. (China Youth Daily)
