Another record year?
Camping continues to boom in Germany
05/24/2023 11:37 am
Campsite instead of Copacabana: 2022 turns out to be a record year for campground operators with around 40 million booked overnight stays. This should now be repeated, if not surpassed. In addition to the classic courses, alternative offers are also becoming increasingly popular.
The ongoing camping boom in Germany has brought good booking numbers to camp site operators this year as well. If the weather cooperates, the season should be good to very good and the record of around 40 million overnight stays from last year should at least be maintained, said Christian Günther, Managing Director of the Federal Association of the Camping Industry in Germany (BVCD).
He expects demand to continue to rise in the coming years. The long weekends in May and June in particular show that camping has become a “mass phenomenon”, says Günther. Then it would be difficult to get a free plot in some places – especially since many people bought mobile homes or caravans during the Corona pandemic and are now regularly on tour with them.
However, inflation does not go unnoticed by the camping industry either and is likely to be reflected “here and there” with price increases of ten percent, but this does not noticeably reduce demand. “We don’t notice that the guests are saving massively on vacation,” said Günther. Meanwhile, not only the classic campsites are in demand, but also alternative offers, for example at the winery, on the farm or simply on an orchard, are becoming increasingly established and can be found with just a few clicks on the Internet in many regions of Germany.
At the Georg Fritz von Nell winery in Trier, for example, campers can park right next to the vineyard, enjoy a meal in the associated restaurant with accompanying wine and spend the night relaxed in their vehicle without having to get behind the wheel. The winery offers 15 parking spaces for self-sufficient vehicles, which are regularly fully booked on the weekends and thus offer an additional mainstay for the winery, says Evi von Nell. Motorhome owners have been able to drive to the winery for around 20 years, but only since the pandemic has the demand really “exploded”.
“Nothing luxurious, very simple”
There are similar offers at Weinhof Martin in Eltville-Erbach in the Hessian Rheingau-Taunus district and at other wineries. The Reifnhof in the Upper Bavarian district of Rosenheim still offers chances of free places this season. Farmer Sybille Stein, who runs the farm together with her husband Sepp, expects demand to pick up in the coming weeks after the rainy start to spring. The dairy farm with grazing also includes three holiday apartments and overnight accommodation in shepherd’s wagons. Anyone who uses one of the four plots of around 60 to 80 square meters in size with a mobile home or caravan can book composting toilets on site, use the bathrooms in the farmhouse and also get water there – “nothing luxurious, very simple,” says Sybille Stein. Especially in view of the fluctuating milk prices, the parking spaces and other overnight accommodations opened in 2020 offer financial compensation for the farm.
The Radlandsichten holiday farm in Bad Malente-Gremsmühlen in Schleswig-Holstein has also offered space for two to three mobile homes since the pandemic – in addition to seven holiday apartments and a courtyard café. Because “a lot was forbidden” at the time, but at the same time a lot of inquiries came in, the decision was made to lay connections for electricity, water and sewage so that the guests could be supplied with their vehicles. There shouldn’t be more pitches, says farmer Kathrin Dehn-Schumacher – after all, it should be “better than on the campsite”, with plenty of space and without fences or demarcated plots. In addition to the holiday offers, the farm operates crops and offers agricultural services – from tree felling and dredging work to the sale of wood chips.
Anyone who finds mobile homes or caravans too expensive or complex can also have it cheaper: According to the camping.info portal, holidaymakers are increasingly opting for the original camping variant with a tent, sleeping bag and gas cooker. Simplicity, flexibility, closeness to nature and a thirst for adventure, but also lower consumption of resources and cost savings are the motives for this. Many campsites offer extra tent meadows, mostly a bit away from the mobile home and caravan sites – and particularly idyllic.
According to the BVCD, there are a total of around 3,100 campsites in Germany with around 230,000 so-called tourist pitches for mobile homes, caravans and caravans. Managing Director Günther put the annual turnover at around five billion euros.