Eicke Schüürmann – Leading Campings

How was the last season for Leading Campings?
All of our members had a good season last year. If you are a camping business and you’re losing money at the moment, then you're doing something wrong. The first show of 2020, the CMT in Stuttgart, was very crowded, which means there are still a lot of people interested in this growing market.

What are you planning for 2020?
We have noticed that camping is getting more of a focus in the tourism sector; it used to be a little bit “shy” compared to other forms of tourism, but in the last two years camping has become trendy and consequently investors see it as a market with good potential.
We lost three campsites in 2019 which were sold to the group chains. At Leading Campings, we like to work with family enterprises. We find the chains harder to work with as they often have directors who are only at a campsite for two or three years at a time.
In France, there are some big chains purchasing campsites, one of which only buys 5-star campsites. That group now has about 26 campsites in four countries and wants to continue to expand to have 40 campsites in Europe by the end of 2022. Competition is always something that wakes you up and makes you more focused: so, what I foresee is a bigger interest in the camping market, like we have seen with brands in the caravan market and the hotel business. There will be a few groups of campsite owners and the others will have to find their own USPs and do something very different or even better, otherwise they will have to go into a price battle against them.

Do you think that joining a large chain or group makes campsites lose their soul, and that there will be a homologation of what is offered?
At first glance, I would say yes, but this applies more for the more mature campers who have been camping for many years. They know the kind of campsite that they like more; but for the younger generation (40-45 years old) who book everything online, they even want to book pizza from their campervan, so I don't think that they need so much soul from a campsite. They are more likely to need a standard level of service. In the end, for the traditional camper the “soul” is very important, but I'm not sure that this will be the fact in the next ten years with the next generation.