Traditional Camping Under Threat
The results show that one in five people have turned their back on camping over the last five years, and they predict that trend will accelerate over the next five years with almost one in four deciding to ditch tents in favour of other holiday options; in absolute terms that means a total of 14 million UK campers who pitched up in 2002 will reduce to just 9.5 million per year by the end of summer 2012.Mintel highlight a variety of factors for the decline in popularity of camping, such as a series of wet British summers and increasing affluence allowing holidaymakers better choice. However, one of the most interesting, they say, is the camping industryò€™s inability to harness modern technology to market their product. Richard Cope, senior travel analyst for the research company suggests that travellers these days are more likely to book on impulse and hints that if the camping industry could offer last-minute vacancy alerts coupled with favourable weather forecasts they would tempt more people into booking. As Cope points out: ò€œGone are the days when people return year after year to the same holiday destination and that includes camping sites. Britons are increasingly looking elsewhere for their holidays and last minute on-line deals mean that they can choose self-catering static home holidays or holiday cottages rather than opt for staying in a field.ò€
Although Mintel argue that the combination of bad summers, growing affluence and the proliferation of reasonably priced holiday cottages and static caravans has seen a swing away from camping under canvass in the UK, the Camping and Caravanning club vehemently disagrees. A spokesperson for the 450,000 member organisation said that their figures show a 1.8% increase in the amount of camping holidays booked for summer 2007, countering the downward trend predicted by Mintel. She said: ò€œWe opened eight new sites this year and all our campsites were very busy. Our membership is rising each year so I donò€™t believe for one moment that we are finished. Our campers are getting younger with the average age dropping from 55 to 49, which in our view bodes well for the future.ò€
Jon Knight, author of best-selling publication Cool Camping agrees that camping remains as popular as ever but points out what Mintel may have unwittingly uncovered is that many campers are turning their backs on the commercial ò€˜super-parksò€™ in favour of the unspoilt smaller sites, where traditional camping values abound. He, like many in the camping industry, believes that the news of its demise is exaggerated and that it will remain alive and well into the foreseeable future.