The evolution of the tourist reflected in requests to Italian camping villages

An analysis of the demands for the 2022 season shows new trends to study in order not to suffer them

– by Riccardo Viroli – 

In the last intense ten years spent working in the en plein air tourism sector (so many years CampingVillage.Travel turns in 2022), one of the biggest challenges comes from the fast and unstoppable change of the market. Camping Villages that want to remain performing must necessarily keep a constant eye on the needs that tourists manifest, in order to anticipate trends and thus win new customers. Unfortunately, the market data to which the individual facility has access are often numerically sparse, rather partial, and often lagging. That is why industry partners can be valuable allies, aggregating information, and providing analysis that can guide the individual business owner’s decisions and strategies.

For this reason, I and the CampingVillage.Marketing team have started the Plein Air Tourism Observatory, to analyze a large volume of requests that are sent to Italian Camping Villages and drawing insights into the evolution of tourists’ preferences and needs. The data are still partial on the annuality, but a closer look at the trend of requests for the 2022 summer season already shows some interesting trends. We report below 4 statistics that indicate a clear evolution.

1. Increased demand volume for low season

The concentration of stays in the summer months in Italian Camping Villages is a known fact, but the 2022 season showed significant early-season demand volumes. Spring longest weekends and short May breaks found excellent occupancy at facilities open during those periods, but June vacations finally returned – for most Italian Camping Villages – to pre-pandemic volumes. One factor can be analyzed to “show us the way” for the years to come: many travelers have begun to place more value in recent years – by choice or necessity – on the possibility of spending their vacations as much in places as at less frequented times. These represent a specific target audience to intercept, engage and “target” with specific marketing actions on multiple channels.

2. Average length of stay

The evolution of tourism is leading some people to prefer shorter stays several times a year. It is therefore not surprising that the majority of requests are for stays of less than a week (49.36% of the total requests received since 01/01/2022 involve between 4 and 7 nights of stay). However, comparison with the historical figure for the average length of stay requested shows clearly the trend:

Not dwelling on 2020 stays – influenced by external and uncontrollable factors – it is evident from the graph the slow but sharp year-on-year decrease in average length of stay. For the future, we will certainly have to take this figure into account so as not to risk fighting like windmills against a trend that now seems unstoppable.

3. Booking window

The booking window is the time between the date on which the initial request is sent and the check-in date. It has become clear to industry professionals that tourists are tending to plan vacations increasingly near the departure date, especially for “low season” periods. A focus on requests for stays in June 2022 reflects the figure symptomatically. This graph details the trend of requests for stays in June 2022 and leaves no room for interpretation:

It is also important to take into account the channel through which these requests came, namely the CampingVillage.Travel network of promotional portals. As is well known, promotion portals are one of the first steps in the path that leads a user to choose a Camping Village, so it means that booking confirmation occurs even more near the departure date. This fact will need to be taken into account when planning future activities, as knowing that requests for June arrive on average 50 days in advance, by early April 2023 it will be crucial to have dedicated proposals and campaigns ready to push early summer stays.

4. Most requested accommodation

Even in this first part of 2022, the accommodation that tourists requested most through the portals of the CampingVillage.Travel network is definitely accommodation. While it is well known that those who prefer tent, RV, or caravan travel are less likely to book, from the historical comparison we see that the demand for pitches is significantly increasing:

At the moment – as per the initial premise we are still at “work in progress” – the data are certainly partial, but they are also confirmed by the requests for stays in September. In fact, we are constantly monitoring the trend of requests for the end of the season, to date already up 18.5 percent compared to the same period in 2021.

For a complete overview of the data, to understand together how the world of en plein air tourism is evolving, and how to ride these trends for a Camping Village’s promo-marketing strategy, the appointment not to be missed is the SIA Hospitality Design fair (Rimini October 12-14, 2022).