Consumers follow the trend and are enthusiastic about capital, but is "camping fever" still a false demand?

Exquisite camping is really profitable?

Writing/Meng Huiyuan

Editor/Wen Jie

Recently, after a May Day holiday, camping, which was originally considered as the demand of the minority, became the most popular "micro-vacation" in the city, and the whole people burst into flames.

"One tent is hard to find", not only the hotel uses "camping" as the traffic password, but also the experiment of combining hotel and camping. Some equipment manufacturers have complied with the new requirements of "style camping" and "outdoor luxury camping" and introduced products with richer equipment and electrical appliances; An RV campsite played the edge ball of "settling down and buying a home" and deliberately evolved into a large residential area; Even iQiyi keeps up with current events and wants a new variety "Camping Together" ... Driven by huge traffic, the capital layout of "New Track" is much faster than expected.

On the surface, the strong demand for camping consumption means that tourism consumption is transforming and upgrading. Facing the new trend of tourism consumption, hotels, businesses and scenic spots keep up in time and are actively adapting to the upgraded tourism market and tourists' consumption demand. But the question is, has exquisite camping, which is popular with capital, really become a public demand?

May Day is an elaborate camping carnival.

"Camping is likely to be a downgrade of tourism consumption." In the comment area of a camping blogger, some netizens left such a sentence, which triggered a lot of discussion.

Among them, some people agree that this wave of "camping fever" is because it is inconvenient for everyone to go out of the province, so they can only wander around, get close to nature and experience "playing house" by the way. Someone replied, "camping in the true sense should not be consumption degradation, because everyone seems to have not figured out what camping is, and proper camping equipment is quite expensive."

According to Ma Bao Qi Lin, what they are actually talking about is the difference between ordinary camping and exquisite camping.

Regular camping refers to camping in parks, valleys, lakes, beaches and other places. The things you carry should be light, and some tools you need for cooking can be made from local materials, which is more in line with the stereotype of the public. This is the most commonly used camping method for the Qi Lin family.

Before the May Day holiday broke out, exquisite camping (also known as wild luxury camping and amorous feelings camping) popular in minority circles was a camping trend characterized by comfort, elegance and high value. It can be a campsite with good equipment, and users only need to "carry a bag to stay", or it can be a "mobile camping" with a full set of equipment and a car stuffed.

"Before, I didn't think there was anything wrong with finding a clearing in the park to pitch a tent. We didn't see the problem until there were more people camping on May Day. " Qi Lin told Zinc Scale that the suburban park they often go to is not a special camping place in itself. Even if they know that this place is suitable for camping, there are few parking spaces and public toilets, it doesn't matter, because there are not many people who go there at ordinary times, which has little influence on them. However, the arrival of this large wave of people during the May Day period made them experience all kinds of inconveniences due to imperfect facilities.

Compared with conventional camping, which has many problems due to the influx of people, exquisite camping in the same period is completely different. As commented by netizens, the powerful summoning power of this minority demand that broke out on May 1 is the helpless choice of many people under the given conditions of Zhou Bianyou. These consumers know nothing about camping, infrastructure and outdoor protection. Once they choose a place that does not have camping conditions and reception capacity, they are prone to accidents.

Exquisite camping has become the first choice for newcomers.

In order to adapt to this kind of users who prefer to "join in the fun", camping packages came into being. Qi Lin saw someone selling this newbie-friendly camping method in the park. "It is said that venues, equipment and all kinds of food can be provided, which is equivalent to returning empty-handed. Business is really hot. Of course, for those of us who are used to bringing our own equipment, the price of several hundred pieces is a bit too high. "

Qi Lin's point of view is actually in line with the cognition of many senior outdoor sports enthusiasts. "Camping is about the original ecology, full of adventure and unknowns, and it also needs to test the outdoor survival skills of campers. If everything is really ready and arranged, what's the point? "

"In fact, like those camping enthusiasts, many people want to go out and relax and take some nice photos. You really want him to pick up all kinds of odds and ends. It may be too difficult to experience a complete camping life like us. It is better to buy the' finished product' service directly. " Qi Lin felt that this time it was more an exquisite camping than a camping trip.

Being popular with capital, but going the wrong way?

In fact, exquisite camping has become a new traffic responsibility, and the relevant practitioners have laid the groundwork for it in advance.

Not only that, many hotels and homestays also followed this latest trend in time before the festival and played a "camping special card". It is reported that during the May Day holiday, the order volume of related hotels and homestays with the "camping" label on Ctrip platform increased by 153% compared with the Qingming holiday.

Even many core business districts in Chongqing have seen a wave of camping. According to relevant media reports, during the May Day holiday, Times Street, U City Street, Yi 'ao Tiandi and Dongyuan 189 1 held camping theme activities one after another. Take the powder collection of Yiao Tiandi as an example. During the event, many tents were set up in the square, and various activities such as creative markets and concerts were held. In order to adapt to the change of holiday tourists, some hotels have also begun to try to launch micro-holiday packages to enhance consumer popularity.

From this perspective, the accurate prediction of the "two-hour holiday circle" makes the richness and quality of local tourism products an inevitable choice to stimulate consumer demand and adapt to market changes. Just because camping is relatively small, it will bring freshness to more consumers' Zhou Bianyou and naturally become their first choice.

202 1-2022 camping hot search keywords

(Source: 2022 camping quality research report)

"Under the trend of not crossing provinces unless necessary, camping has become a popular way of vacation at present, and the heat will continue for a long time." Mou Hong, an expert in china tourism academy expert database, believes that camping does not conflict with traditional holiday ways such as hotels and homestays, and can even promote each other. Such as tent hotels, wilderness homestays, etc. You can also pay attention to being close to nature and give consideration to everyone's pursuit of accommodation quality.

However, some practitioners went astray when they made the "camping+"transformation. According to the Workers' Daily, some RV campsites, which should meet the needs of RV replenishment and tourism and leisure, have directly played the role of "settling down and buying homes" in the campsites. "Tenants can choose to buy an RV at a price of 6.5438+0.2 million yuan and live here for five years. After five years, you can choose to drive away or stay here. " Very popular with office workers near the camp.

This also leads to another problem. As a simple leisure activity, after the intervention of capital, the iteration of products and services is ushered in, and camping with more functions is gradually evolving into a contest between consumer wealth and aesthetics.

After all, compared with the conventional camping with simple equipment, from the upgrading of camping cars, outdoor chairs, picnic mats, portable dining tables and other equipment, to the camping RV that integrates everything, and then to hotels and homestays under the banner of camping, "the equipment and services related to exquisite camping look high, but it also means that there is no low-end version of this camping method."

You can make a wave of hot money, but it is not "public demand"

As a result, the fine camping business is really profitable.

From the list of "202 1 Popular Camping" released by Ma Honeycomb before, it can be seen that camping has become a "good seller" of online celebrities' scenery and fresh gameplay, and it has also made minority games such as volcano camping, self-driving camping and starry sky camping become new hotspots in the camping circle.

The reception capacity of popular areas is far below the current actual market demand. It is understood that some homestays and camping bases in the suburbs of Beijing were full before the May Day holiday. According to the data released by Tujia on April 22nd, the booking volume of May Day orders of B&Bs in Beijing on the platform has doubled compared with that of 202 1. Among them, the hotel bookings in Beijing suburbs accounted for more than 90% of the total hotel bookings of all citizens during the May Day period.

But can this "new track", which is valued by many practitioners and invested heavily, be regarded as a long-term "public demand"? You know, although camping seems to have exploded, the reason why this product has been widely promoted at this stage is mainly because it meets the needs of people in a specific period, and many consumers have a stronger sense of following the trend. When this wave of heat fades, how many points are left in the real bonus of camping?

Considering the normal operation of the camping market, it means high cost for consumers to equip all kinds of equipment to increase the sense of ceremony. It can be seen from the equipment quotations of major e-commerce platforms that the most basic camping packages are generally several hundred yuan, and the price is as high as several thousand yuan. The price of mobile camping equipment is not capped, not to mention the top equipment such as RV. If you add some charging camping bases, you will also have to pay hundreds of venue fees.

For the camping base, the investment income is also likely to be less than expected. Camping site management needs investment and operation, and it needs investment in the early stage, and operation also needs to pay costs, such as site rental fee, equipment fee, labor fee, etc. Considering the popular trend of gameplay, the camp should keep up with the trend, innovate camping tourism market products and meet the diversified needs of consumers, which is also a big expense. However, Huaxi Securities Research Report also revealed that the operating income of a camping base from 202 1 to 1 was10.96 million yuan, the net profit was 102 1000 yuan, and the net interest rate was only 1%.

Various new ways of playing "camping+"

(Source: 2022 camping quality research report)

It seems that the camping equipment manufacturers who make money first, as well as the homestays and hotels that follow the trend of launching camping packages, have a blowout development trend in sales growth, but once the equipment is purchased, it can be used permanently, and the possibility of repurchase is low. The unit price of camping package is not low, so the overall frequency is not high. In addition, it is not just needed, which is actually difficult to continue to be "hot".

Based on the above, it is not difficult to see that the track faces many challenges, such as single business projects and unclear market positioning; Homogenization competition is great, there are many imitators and few market segments; The level of the camp is uneven, which leads to poor consumption experience. In order to survive for a long time, finding the right market position and exploring the business model are the key issues.

Undoubtedly, the exquisite camping that consumers "join in the fun" is still in its infancy, and there is great room for development in terms of the number, carrying capacity and service level of camping bases, as well as subjective, differentiated and characteristic operations. It is too early to talk about "cake" at this stage.