The hotel was cold and the camping caught fire.

Stay in nature, set up exquisite tents, erect retro awnings, unfold folding tables and chairs, and spread table mats and napkins. Chop wood and boil water to cook until nightfall, light a bonfire, have a long talk with friends, or simply stare at the stars in a daze. Late at night, I got into the tent and fell asleep peacefully with the quiet and fresh air in the wild until I was awakened by the first sunshine the next morning.

People's expectation of blending into nature and returning to nature seems instinctive, just as Thoreau described in Walden: "Stepping into the jungle, because I want to live a meaningful life, I want to live a profound life and absorb all the essence of life. Then learn from it, lest you find that you have not lived at the end of your life. "

When the network celebrities represented by B&B no longer attract young people, the emergence of exquisite camping seems logical.

However, the outbreak of the epidemic and the rise of platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Tik Tok have accelerated the rise of this industry.

Exquisite camping can literally understand its purpose: you want to be close to nature, but you can't give up modern elements such as air conditioning, mattresses, sofas and chandeliers. It is best to have outdoor black technology for cooking and wine storage. , even your favorite collection.

Since 20 14, exquisite camping has developed rapidly abroad.

Charming camping was originally created by millennials in the United States. The material conditions of "Millennials" are superior to those of the previous generation, but their ability to survive in the wild is worse than that of their parents, and their work pressure and anxiety are far greater than those of their predecessors. Therefore, this luxury travel mode, which was popular more than 0/00 years ago, has re-entered the dictionary of contemporary travel.

Some analysts believe that the main driving force behind this upsurge is the post-70s and post-80s with abundant economy. They have a stable income, have certain social pressure and are eager to relax their family travel, so they are no longer willing to spend more money at the expense of comfort and get privately ordered opportunities to get close to nature.

But before 2020, outdoor camping is still rare in China.

The traditional camping methods are hiking and mountain climbing. These people are basically outdoor hardcore groups, and "abuse" is almost synonymous with this camping method and has become a wall that restricts other groups from starting this sport. RV camping and self-driving camping enter the crowd outside the hard-core outdoor in a more luxurious way, but they require higher economic level and cannot escape the barriers of the minority.

The emergence of exquisite camping in China is more like something in between. It does not "abuse" but exquisitely meets people's needs to enter Shan Ye, and it will not be luxurious and slightly boring. Coupled with the consumption upgrade, the catalysis of platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Tik Tok, and the impact of the epidemic, exquisite camping successfully broke the circle.

In 2020, it can be called the first year of exquisite camping in China.

In Little Red Book, the number of camping-related notes increased by 27 1% in 2020, and the number of views increased by170%. In 20021year, the popularity of "Zhou Bianyou" soared, and the popularity of camping search increased by 258% year-on-year. At present, "camping" is the key word search, and there are more than 940,000 related comments.

Young people who follow the trend and middle-class families who value companionship are important components of camping enthusiasts. According to public data, in 2020, the number of camping families in the United States reached 8,665,438+million, and the camping penetration rate exceeded 65%; According to the White Paper on Social Camping for Generation 202 1 Z released by Taobao, 36.4% of young people in China have become "camping parties".

At the same time, enterprises related to camping are gradually increasing. According to the data of Tianyancha, there are more than 9,000 camping-related enterprises in China in 2020, with an annual registration growth rate of 69.87%; In 20021year, more than 2 1000 related enterprises were added, with an annual registered growth rate of 94.99%. By April 2, 2022, there were 50 130 companies searching for "camping".

During the period of 202 1 and1month, Hot Wilderness received two consecutive financings, with financing amounts of10 million yuan and10 million yuan respectively. Employers include the only capital Little Dinosaur Fund and Mugaodi, a listed company of outdoor travel equipment. In August of 20021year, the hot camping income has reached 10 million. Its founder Zhu Xian said that it is expected to increase by 2-3 times in 2022.

Hi, King got the Million Angel Round financing in March 2022, and the investor was Boting, a luxury tent manufacturer. Hey King said that this round of financing will continue to be used to establish a refined camping chain business model and promote the "new lifestyle" to a larger market. It is expected that another round of financing will be ushered in 2022.

As the first brand in the domestic camping industry that has been favored by capital, Hino and Hi King have made great efforts to create a punch-in point for online celebrities, and gained a large wave of traffic dividends brought by platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Tik Tok. Everyone is vigorously promoting standardization and scale, hoping to make exquisite camping a way of life. However, after careful observation, their business models and strategic priorities are completely different.

Before he founded Hino, Zhu Xian was an executive of Huangbao Automobile, an outbound travel startup. In 2020, Zhu Xian began to contact camping in Let's Go. In the process of purchasing equipment, Zhu Xian found that although camping abroad is a very mature industry, camping in China is still rare.

He summed up several reasons:

This also allows Zhu Xian to see business opportunities.

In September, 2020, after one and a half months of preparation, the first station of Hino was put into operation in Sanya. The venue is located on the beach of a five-star hotel. The camp infrastructure can rely on hotel services to locate "bag-carrying" standardized camping. The price is 799 yuan/person, which is aimed at novice camping users, mainly young female consumers. This operation almost accurately knocked off the above threshold, making camping more grounded.

In a sense, the hot wilderness is lucky. Relying on the traffic explosion triggered by the little red book, the first wave of dividends was obtained. Zhu Xian once said that the hot field was in a state of traffic overflow from the beginning, and nearly 70% of users came from Xiaohongshu.

The camp mode of Reye is to cooperate with owners, hotels and tourist attractions with the land on the ground. Many partners value whether the hot wilderness can bring 50 young and diffused tourists every day. In this mode, the hot field does not need to rent its own space, and the hydropower network can also be used in scenic spots and hotels.

Zhu Xian introduced that the investment in a camp is about one million yuan, and the relatively heavy cost is invested in the salary and equipment of the senior management team. Fixed costs here will test the opening rate. Fortunately, in the hot wilderness, there is no need to worry about passenger flow. One is to rely on the traffic of Xiaohongshu, and the other is that most of the camps are located in first-tier cities, and young people have spending power and high acceptance of new things.

With a steady cash flow, the fiery wilderness began to expand new camps. At present, there are more than 20 operating camps in the Great Hot Wilderness in China, which are distributed in Sanya, Wuhan, Beijing, Huizhou, Zhuhai, Shanghai, Fuzhou and other places. This year, it will continue to cover the surrounding areas of super-first-tier cities such as Beishangguangshen and Shenzhen.

With the maturity of the business model, the fiery wilderness is also aimed at self-built camps. On the one hand, camping consumers in China have comprehensive requirements for supporting facilities of camping camps, hoping to be equipped with toilets and shower rooms, external power supply, garbage storage and catering facilities. On the other hand, after the harvest of hot camping is large, the profit distributed to the cooperative camp is much higher than the rental cost of the rental camp.

More importantly, the hot wilderness needs to do more than camping. Zhu Xian defines Hot Field as an outdoor lifestyle brand company, and he hopes to build a more grand outdoor ecosystem with camping as the traffic entrance. This outdoor ecology includes camping scenes, entertainment interaction, display and sales of out shoes and camping equipment, and various outdoor sports.

Different from the fiery wilderness, Hi King's business model is self-operated camp+brand camp+industrial service, and the national chain camp is laid out in three ways: self-operated, joint venture and brand joining. The camp mode still adopts the way of cooperation with landowners and scenic spots.

Hi, Cui Lianbo, the founder of King, has positioned the project as a "micro-holiday camp". He mentioned that the micro-holiday camp is completely different from the destination. The user group of the former is residents around the city where the camp is located, while the customer group of the latter is foreign tourists. He advocated that camping should not be defined as accommodation in different places, which would make it difficult to buy it again.

Cui Lianbo did not choose to operate the camp as a surrounding tourism product, but regarded the camp as a "lifestyle" of traveling in the suburbs of the city, a lifestyle of outdoor nature and luxury experience.

Based on the above positioning, hi King considers the population size of the city first, then the distance between the camp and the city, and finally the environment and safety around the camp. Of course, the consumption power around the city is also an important consideration.

In July 2020, Hi King chose to open the first camp in Xi 'an, which was completely built according to online celebrities. After doing the second and third camps, Cui Lianbo began to think that after users came to the camp, in addition to punching cards and taking pictures, socialization was also a big demand point. Therefore, Hi King added activities such as night talk around the stove, bonfire party, camp education, werewolf killing, script killing and so on.

In order to make exquisite camping a reproducible business model, Cui Lianbo began to establish a series of standards, including catering, accommodation, activities, staff code of conduct, service details and so on. And then carry out brand franchise business.

This year, Hi King operated 12 campsites in Xi, Haikou, Harbin and Hangzhou. Cui Lianbo said that the national chain camp will continue to be laid out in three ways: self-employment, joint venture and brand joining, and the layout of the national 50+ brand chain camp will be completed in 2022.

Cui Lianbo thinks: "It's time for China to play, and it's time to take' playing well' as a way of life." But to cultivate a new way of life, we should not rush into it.

Undoubtedly, camping enthusiasm has led to the explosive growth of search volume and sales volume of related products on e-commerce platforms, and also led to the rapid expansion of the camp market. According to public data, the outdoor camping industry is expected to continue to grow. In 2025, the market size of camping camps alone will reach 56.2 billion yuan.

However, it is undeniable that this new format is still in its infancy, camping culture has not been better promoted and guided, and the industry is far from the stage of enterprise competition.

At the same time, the industry also faces many challenges. The vast majority of tourists are one-time consumers, and problems such as poor experience caused by defects in camp construction, low degree of differentiation of hotels and homestays, and unclear market positioning are all troubles in the process of camping economic growth. In order to avoid "fire and death" like many homestays, the camping industry needs to be "step by step" to achieve sustainable development.

Li Guangzhen, founder of Boting, said that the camping economy still faces the dilemma that the level of camps is uneven and most of them are difficult to make profits. How to find the right market position and explore the business model is an urgent problem to be solved.

He summed up the pain points of the industry in three aspects:

In addition, at present, the country has not issued policies and management measures for the camping industry, and the industry lacks access standards and rules. This is also a concern of many practitioners.

Zhu Xian told a real case. Last year, a snake got into a tent in a camp in Beijing. It's interesting for the user to take photos after finding it, but it makes him nervous.

"If this is a poisonous snake, this poisonous snake just bit a child, which becomes a social event, and the camping industry is probably gone. You know, accidents and responsibilities are completely different. Therefore, we urgently need the state to introduce a policy to prove the compliance of the industry. "

Wang Jigang, founder of Freedom Soul, a domestic high-end tent manufacturer, also expressed concern about the policy. If there is no policy compliance standard, the industry is relatively fragile, and security accidents may bring disaster to the industry.

"The camping economy is not a simple business of beauty, tents and punching cards, but a comprehensive inspection of outdoor sports, leisure and entertainment, and accommodation experience." Li Guangzhen concluded.

In his view, operators should tap the characteristics of the camp, with mountains suitable for mountains and water suitable for water. They should explore and improve in practice again and again, constantly innovate, avoid homogeneous management, solve the problems of tourists' strong sightseeing and low sense of participation, and gradually cultivate consumers' camping habits, so as to do a long-term business.