21st Century Business Herald reporter Tang Weike and intern Lu Youning reported from Guangzhou
Unlike other brightly colored travel apps, the logo of Mino Camp is only made up of black, white and brown. The simple and powerful word "Miye" is embellished with a small positioning pattern, but it is not difficult to see the style and ingenuity of the founder.
Open the "Community" page to share, the latest stay on February 25 this year, a post posted in Guangdong posted a barbecue picture of the "urban forest" camping project, with the text "Can't wait to brush twice".
But what he didn't expect was that such a professional camping platform would stop serving in March 2023.
According to reports, Shi Jianqing, the founder of Miye Camp, said that the reason for stopping the service was that the platform was not profitable and the financing was unsuccessful.
In recent years, camping has become the preferred way to travel short leisure trips. For urban youth and couples groups, camping is a popular social ticket; For parent-child families, children play freely and bring parents leisure to enjoy life; For the elderly, going for a walk outdoors is also a great way to relax.
New camps have blossomed all over the country, iMedia consulting and business registration information show that there were more than 9,000 new camps in China in the first half of 22 alone, with a total of more than 30,000, and the total output value of the camping industry was nearly 36 billion. In 2021, the core market size of China's camping economy reached 74.75 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 62.5%; The market size was 381.23 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 58.5%. It is estimated that the core market size of China's camping economy will grow to 248.32 billion yuan in 2025, driving the market size to 1.44028 billion yuan.
For camping, an activity with a natural social nature, Internet companies also enter the field after smelling the opportunity. Miye, whose full name is "Mino CAMP", is a camping travel APP launched by Yingyue Group in April 2021. In addition to location-based recommendations for recent camps, users can share camping tips in the community and travel with people with similar interests.
The time has passed, and the camp has fallen, but there are still countless entrepreneurs who are full of confidence in camping, and they have rushed into this hard-won spring. At this fork in the road, is the wind still there or has the inflection point arrived?
"Poetry and the distance" on the vent
"Life is not only about the present, but also about poetry and distant places", although the Internet golden phrase of that year now seems to be a little outdated, but it has inspired countless people's yearning for "just going", but it has derived a new travel outlet - "camping".
To meet the yearning and exploration of nature, the time and money cost is relatively low, and the journey experience is more immersive... Camping seems like a niche project for people who have been trapped in the city for a long time, and this advantage has made it hot for a while.
Compared with overseas markets, the mainland camping industry is still in the early stage of development and has broad growth space.
Recreational camping first began to develop from Europe and the United States in the 60s of the 19th century, and the camping industry gradually formed in the 20th century, and then the economic boom after World War II prompted more people to participate in camping activities; Japanese and Korean camping culture has developed successively since the 50~60s of the 20th century; In contrast, the mainland camping industry formed late but developed rapidly, and 2020 is generally considered to be the "first year of exquisite camping" in the mainland.
For the new stage of the development direction of the camping industry. Professor Wu Zhicai, dean, professor and doctoral supervisor of the Department of Tourism Management of South China University of Technology, and director of the Guangdong Tourism Strategy and Policy Research Center, told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that after the relaxation of tourism restrictions, the camping economy can explore the "+ camping +" development model, first do a good job of "+ camping", embed the construction of campsites in the urban public service system and nature reserve system, and promote the construction of cultural tourism in urban and rural areas; Secondly, do a good job of "camping +", give full play to creativity to create lifestyle products, develop exquisite camping and mass camping, etc., to achieve "unchanged camps, changing themes and experiences", so as to continuously enhance the competitiveness of camping economy.
According to the "2022 China Cultural Tourism Camping Industry Integration Development Research Report", although the overall growth rate of the camping economy has slowed down after the peak period in 2022, the industry expects that its market size will still reach a considerable 178.14 billion yuan in 2023, almost 9 times that of 2019.
Not only are professionals optimistic about the camping economy, but consumers and capital markets have also expressed support for the camping economy.
Shenzhen Business said on its official account on March 7, "In Shenzhen, the recent popularity of camping has increased by 1,000% compared with last year."
The capital market used the data of the camping economy index from mid-January to early March with a cumulative increase of more than 11%, the Shanghai Composite Index rising by 4% in the same period, outperforming the market, and 7 concept stocks rising by more than 10% in the past 20 trading days, to submit a satisfactory answer to the camping economy.
However, the camping industry has just become a climate and ushered in the possibility of inbound and outbound tourism resuming to grab the source of customers, and the development at the fork in the road is also facing challenges.
Undercurrent of "camping" deep water
The popularity of camping is more appropriate to say that it is a holiday trend than living habits, but the trend means instability, and the loss of customer groups is inevitable after the consumption concentration period.
First of all, making camping a stable consumption habit in China and developing a stable and reliable consumer group is a long challenge for entrepreneurs. Of course, behind this is also the time and money stacking of publicity marketing, the cost can be seen.
Secondly, the threshold for wanting a piece of the camping market is not high. Some insiders pointed out: "It is precisely because the threshold is not high, the competition situation in the camp industry will be more fierce in the future, and the brand influence and service capabilities of most camps cannot meet the requirements of camping enthusiasts." "This mixed market situation is also bound to affect consumers' swing in camping products for tourism products."
"It's the upstream equipment manufacturers who make money now." Shi Jianqing, the founder of Miye Camp, once said. Compared with traffic platforms such as Xiaohongshu, startup platforms have to sacrifice commissions to attract suppliers to settle in, and it is also unrealistic to rely on the advertising fees of equipment manufacturers. The camping brand's own business model selection, product portfolio, and customer repurchase rate are in the same initial stage as the mainland camping industry, and have low anti-risk ability in the face of uncertainties such as weather and partners.
In the field of equipment manufacturers, domestic camping equipment shows a trend of brand centralization, and the competitive advantage of first-line national brands is significant.
At present, there are many participants in the domestic camping market, and major domestic and foreign brands compete on the same stage, including overseas luxury brands, domestic camping brands and other outdoor brands that do camping products. Among them, overseas luxury brands are most representative of Japan's Snow Peak and Denmark's Nordisk, domestic camping brands such as Nakamu Gaodi, Noke, Black Deer and so on are strong, in addition, ANTA's outdoor brand Kolon is also involved in expanding the camping market in addition to outdoor clothing.
Wu Zhicai also mentioned to the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that there are challenges in the upstream and downstream of the current upstream and downstream of related industries and repurchase rates. Although 14 ministries and commissions, including the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Ministry of Natural Resources, jointly issued the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Healthy and Orderly Development of Camping Tourism and Leisure in November 2022, which provided guidance on the development, operation and management of camping land, how to implement it is still a problem.
"Campsite site selection is a prerequisite to ensure the safety of campers, and should be selected in a safe area, away from forest fire prevention areas, flood control areas, geological disaster prone areas and other areas; Secondly, the campsite should improve the construction of safety supporting facilities such as water, electricity, fire fighting, and rescue, and become a landmark for camping; Finally, establish and improve the emergency response mechanism, and strengthen the construction of safety early warning and emergency rescue system. In view of the future safety operation of the camping industry, Wu Zhicai said. In addition, whether more protection should be provided for single female tourists, he said: "According to the principle of humanization, camping-related brands can consider designing special products or providing more protection in this regard." ”
"Exquisite camping" is the key to breaking the game?
Different from the "hardship" and "original" concepts of its traditional camping, exquisite camping does not require consumers to pay too much energy, they will be more calm and comfortable to get close to nature under the condition of sufficient equipment, which is obviously more in line with the consumption needs of young groups, and naturally has become the general direction of development of existing camping brands.
At present, each brand that has survived from "exquisite camping" has played its own set of "grandchildren's art of war".
Long Weitao, the brand founder of Go sofari, has said that he chose to focus on product experience and word of mouth – the campsite is staffed by store managers and butlers, and the project works with professional event execution companies, as well as operating new media channels and private communities. He does not do a quick return business, so the gross profit margin is not high.
Unlike Go sofari, Cui Lianbo, the founder of Hi King, has expanded by making the model lighter and reducing construction costs. He believes that if the initial investment is too heavy, the initial profit will only be continuously consumed in the depreciation of the product, which will lengthen the return on investment period of a single camp. Through this business model, Cui Lianbo also achieved a gross profit margin of 60% under normal operations.
In fact, no matter what kind of business model, doing a good job in the content of camping projects, maintaining user stickiness and repurchase rate are the ever-changing survival rules in the industry. "Too many recreational activities will detract from the original purpose of connecting people and nature, and in the long run, it will only make the product boring and affect sustainable development." Wu Zhicai told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that campsites can develop in the direction of IP, scene, etc., pay attention to family tours, parent-child tours and other customer groups, and leverage the "secondary consumption" and even "multiple consumption" of camping. Rather than adding weird content, making the camping economy sustainable is the solution.
2.0 camping era, under the similar format, the content, communication, marketing and other capabilities of major camping brands are a test, and the future camping industry will accelerate the reshuffle. The upstream equipment manufacturers in the industry have emerged, and will gradually establish brand recognition and brand power; The downstream camping service providers in the industry implement "light assets and heavy operations", and will move towards platform, cluster, and chain development. Of course, the public also expects that more camping products that meet the needs of consumers will be born in the future.
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