by Tom Leaning
Caravan and motorhomers with a thirst for adventure and sense of freedom will lead to an increase in the number of caravan and motorhome holidays, according to an Inspiring Adventure Report published this week by the newly renamed Caravan and Motorhome Club.
The number of touring trips where the main form of accommodation is camping or caravanning will rise by six per cent – almost a million journeys – to 16.6 million by 2030 says new analysis for the Caravan and Motorhome Club undertaken by the Centre for Economics and Business Research. Spending is also set to boom with the outlay increasing by more than a third over the same period. Brits are forecast to spend some £3.6 billion on hitting the road for their holidays in 2030 – a rise of 37 per cent on current levels – either in their own vehicles or rentals, says forecasting experts. Sales of caravans and motorhomes are also set to rise by 18 per cent to 889,000 vehicles by 2030.
Harvey Alexander, director of marketing, the Caravan and Motorhome Club commented: “We’re a membership organisation of people who passionately love the outdoors and we were delighted to see both such positive predictions for growth and also that 55 per cent of people we surveyed felt that caravan and motorhome holidays have become more popular in recent years. It’s clear from the feedback we’ve had that the flexibility and freedom and sense of adventure is what appeals to most holidaymakers but we were also excited to see that people are also showing interest in taking their vehicles further afield. One in three people we spoke to said they are interested in a caravan or motorhome holiday in mainland Europe, with almost one in five (16%) hoping to tour in North America. And similar numbers even said they’d just like to head off an adventure with no fixed destination. Our role is to inspire future generations of touring holidaymakers and Club members to go out and start their own adventures, whether they travel for 10 miles, 100 miles or a thousand miles.”
The Caravan and Motorhome Club Inspiring Adventure Report has been published to coincide with the announcement that it has changed its name from The Caravan Club to reflect the increasing number of motorhome travellers in its membership. The Club will be upgrading facilities across its entire site network, including wifi on every single site by the end of this year and expanding the worldwide holidays on offer to members.
Other predictions in the report published today include the fact that touring holidays also forecast to rise sharply in 2018 to 16.2million as a weak pound could result in more people taking UK holidays.
Almost one third (27 per cent) said they have owned or rented a caravan and camper van of which 78 per cent stay in the UK and 21 per cent head for the European mainland.
Londoners topped the list for those heading abroad with one in three (33 per cent) travelling to mainland Europe and 18 per cent going to North America.
