20 percent more. This is the increase recorded by motorhome and caravan tourism in Europe during this summer 2020, according to a recent survey commissioned by the Erwin Hymer Group. Between July 29th and August 4th, the German company Customer Research 42 interviewed 3,050 people from Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Norway, discovering that of all holidays types, this is the one that it has grown the most, with 13 per cent of European tourists spending their holidays camping.
According to the survey, 51 percent had to change their travel plans due to the Covid-19 pandemic and half of them stayed at home: 70 percent more than in 2019. If the holiday by caravan and campers are growing, the same cannot be said for those involving air travel (down by 69%) and for cruises (-42%).
“In a home on wheels, social distancing is easier than with other forms of travel and vacation,” said Martin Brandt, CEO of Erwin Hymer Group. “The demand for our products is growing and we assume that this year, the RV season will extend into the cold season. We were able to benefit from the sudden reorientation in vacation planning. The stock vehicles of our dealers were in great demand in spring and our rental companies saw a sharp rise in short-term booking requests at the beginning of the season”.
The survey highlighted the five reasons that favored the choice of a trip in a camper or caravan: the desire to avoid the plane (80%), the possibility of having to delay returning home (75%), the fear of quarantine (70%), preventive measures that would have impacted other travel arrangements (70%) and the risk of infection (66%). Of this type of holiday, they like the possibility of visiting different places (52%), independence during the trip (51%), proximity to nature (47%), the possibility of trying a new experience (40%) and the low risk of infection (30%).
Overall, the attitude towards mobile holidays is extremely positive: 43% of all respondents think that within the next three years they could try a holiday in a motorhome or caravan.
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