Following our mention of campsites for sale on Campsites for sale blog and Buy My Dream Hotel site, Andy Hampton has been in touch about another Campsites for Sale site. What’s interesting is that the sites for sale all seem to be of the more mainstream variety that make up the bulk of 2,000+ sites the Camping and Caravan Club has to offer on their SiteSeeker. So lots of sites that have static caravans and appear to be aimed at the touring caravan and mobile market. As mentioned before, Pitchup.com lists over 5,000 UK and Ireland holiday parks, campsites and the like. There’s also the Caravan Sites and Camp Sites Directory Search on UKCampsite.co.uk, which also has thousands of sites listed on it with over 90,000 independent reviews submitted by readers. So there seems neither a shortage of campsites out there nor ones for sale.
The gap in the market seems to be the more alternative, eco, quirky, cool, happy or upmarket camp/glamp sites, to service the growing new breed of middle class campers. For examples, the third and latest edition of Cool Camping only listed 150 sites, 3 of them by yours truly. Same is true of GoGlamping’s UK Directory which lists just over 100 sites, and some of these will be duplicated in the Cool Camping directory. Given that the folks behind Cool Camping and GoGlamping are also involved in helping shape the best/top campsite guides for the Sunday versions and supplements of the broadsheets (see Who’s who in camping 2011?) there’s an over subscription to a very small number of sites, some of which get booked up nearly a year in advance.
What’s interesting is that with these sites it’s less about what’s on offer facility-wise and more about the aesthetics and attitude of the campsite and their owners. So simply having a big field with tire swings can often be more important than having decent toilets and washing facilities. It doesn’t take long to get established either. Take a site like Forgewood which has only being going a few years but managed to get on The Guardian’s 10 best sites for families. Amazing given the site is basically a clone of Wowo, which Joanna Moorhead who compiled the list didn’t include this year.
I can’t help but think that the Caravan and Camping Club’s Franchise Scheme is partly to blame for the lack of innovation in the mainstream camping arena because to become a franchise you are required to provide certain facilities for their members. This kind of conformity results in an over supply of sites trying attract similar customers with offerings that aren’t particularly differentiated. Maybe they are trying to address this with their forays into alternative camping (Pods, Dens, Safari Tents, etc). However, this is still only very small scale compared to their more mainstream offerings, which can often look like gloried car parks with rows and rows of static caravans. These blots on the landscape are a far cry from the clubs founding principles of leaving nothing but your thanks. Perhaps it’s time for the Camping and Caravan Club to review their remit particularly as far as more sustainable and less impactful camping are concerned. A good place to start would be to look at the obvious conflict of interest of being both of arbiter and beneficiary of campsites. They should also be helping franchisees break free of the usual shackles they require not least because these might not be compatible with where the growing demand is. And if they are not doing it already then they should be keeping franchisee abreast of how to adapt to meet this growing demand.
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I think you could be right about the Camping and Caravanning Club. In fact there seem to be two divisions to that club and only one takes tents into account. What tent campers need can often be different from what caravanners need. For example I like a numbered or marked pitch and I also loved the camping plots we got at Seaview International in Cornwall this year which gave us protection. I hate it when our tent has a motorhome right next to it in a field which mixes tents and caravans – you feel very vulnerable to squashing ! The good French sites we have been to have been well organised. The hedging etc though takes years to plant and mature so a well laid out campsite can take years. We thought Seaview was great though – lovely planting and lovely views.
Does this article justify the headline? Yes, there’s an undersupply of Cool Camping type sites, but please remember that this sector’s economics don’t hinge on the recent surge in middle class camping. Far from it.
The vast majority of camping and caravan trips happen at static caravan and mainstream touring, motorhome and camping sites. The nascent ‘cool camping’ movement is nowhere near the size of this, probably less than 5% of it in revenue terms.
I’d agree that many of these sites aren’t particularly innovative (though many *invest* huge sums in spas, pools and other facilities), but innovating on middle-class camping lines isn’t the answer either.
Yes, there’s a small, but growing segment of middle-class campers – great, what took them so long? – which just happens to include nearly all the London-based media. But let’s remove the goggles and acknowledge that the representative customer in this industry is not a Guardian reader living in north London. It’s a family living in Birmingham who rather like chilling out at a “glorified car park” on the coast, or taking their motorhome or tourer to a fully serviced pitch, with their kids having a whale of a time at the waterslide (which actually aren’t Club sites but Haven, Parkdean etc.). Conformist? Yes. Undifferentiated? Yes. But people like it, and these companies enjoy some of the highest loyalty rates anywhere. And a dirty secret: most kids would choose a water slide over a nature walk or a hippy teaching them weaving any day
Sid(?) … I think you are missing the point. We are talking economic growth here and whether you like it or not that appears to be coming from new breed of middle campers looking for non mainstream camping experience. So loyalty of mainstream campers isn’t really in question here although that said there seems to be a high number of standard sites up for sale during what must be boom time for camping. Maybe owners are trying to cash in their chips but can’t help thinking that this is the time they should be milking it and if not you’d have to ask why not. As far as ROI is concerned, I would rather be investing in the likes of Featherdown Farms than Haven, etc, not least because water parks sound a lot more expensive than bushcraft?
I’m sure everyone welcomes the growth in middle-class camping and it must be the fastest-growing part of the market, but it’s growing from such a low base that it’s not going to move the dial for a long time. Of course more individual operators would be better off converting their sites while there’s an undersupply, but the idea of mainstream camping dying if it doesn’t start drinking the Cool Camping koolaid is wide of the mark – it’s years away from representing anything more than a small niche in revenue terms, even if it gets 90% of the column inches.
Not sure about any increased sale activity – you’d need prior comparables for that.
Through a London lens I can understand this point of view – but ask people in the real camping and caravan heartlands and I think you’ll get a different story. See also Malmaison and Hotel du Vin performance vs mainstream and low-cost hotels – only a niche there too.
Sid … would be great to have proper chat about this but you haven’t let us know your real name or email addres. I’m also on hols and using an iPhone is proving limited. But firstly I’m throwing gauntlet down so good to get feedback. I don’t live in London (anymore) but do live in South East. But there are over 12 million people who live within M25 which is probably why cool camping type sites round here are often booked out a year in advance. Same seems to be true of yurt and tipi type places in South West. I’m guessing you are not a betting man Sid because what might makes sense for a not for profit like the C&CC might not be the same for land owning entrepreneur. Anyway drop us a line at info@campingoutthere.com so we can have proper chat.