What is the obsession with attracting the yoof
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Thanks to all the people who replied, TW, JayEss and JVB
Now does anyone recognise these books?
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They were written by the chap who took that pic of the future Mrs C.
My father in law
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some excellent photos in there including this one of Yellowcraig
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I don't recognise the books, Corners, but what a wonderful memento of your fil.
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thanks, the books are a picture of caravaning in the early 70s (green book) and late 70/80s.
'A combination of 2in coupling and 50mm ball (or vice versa) is dangerous'
'Sprite .... recommend 77lb nose weight for the 400 model'
'the Scott stabiliser is easily fitted'
'for automatics: 'Overheating can occur more easily on some models than on others. Where there is a large area of underbonnet space and a compact engine (such s the V4) airflow may be sufficient to prevent overheating'
'... fitted exterior mirrors, or a retrovisor' What is a retrovisor?
A crossing Dover to Boulogne would cost about £51, quite a lot in 1971
The caravan MH debate was about caravans v tents (still is with one poster here
) so I'll finish with:there should be no bias or snobbery between the two classes, and your true camper is no less of a lover of the countryside and a respecter of other people and property than the average caravanner'
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I agree about welcoming everyone although I do have some sympathy with the OP. My instinct tells me that the C&CC has a slightly wider age range appeal - tents are often used by those who are younger (it was the route we took that resulted in us becoming caravanners). When we visit C&CC sites there are generally younger folk about during weekends and holidays.
David
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"fitted exterior mirrors, or a retrovisor' What is a retrovisor?"
Corners, I think the Retrovisor was the name given to a big mirror in a casing which was fitted to the car roof at the top of the windscreen on the driver's side. It was angled inside the box to give a view over the car roof and through the caravan windows. Effectively, if was a rear facing periscope.
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True, but the next generation of oldies will come from the middle aged, not the younger generation. Natural progression is that the younger generation (20 - 30 years old) will become members in another twenty years while the 30 - 40 year olds will fill the vacancies left by us oldies in ten years while the 40 -50 are presently applying for membership.
Anyone wishing to give up their long haul foreign holidays or not wanting to enjoy sun and sand of foreign climes can always jump the queue.
No business can thrive on 6 weeks full income for the year.
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wow, thanks! look fun, who need dash cams
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Who needs dashcams?, wow, that Heath Robinson set up records footage as well as uses positional gps logging & G sensor for impacts?
That was very advanced for its time Mr C
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The club don't have a chance of filling the sites with younger people other than during a very limited few weeks of the year. Primarily this is because children are at school. Of the approximately 30 weeks of the year when most of the sites are open there are only 9 weeks of school holidays and the majority of these are during very late July, August and very early September. That leaves 21 weeks which, apart from weekends, are very likely to be devoid of younger people. It is therefore these weeks that the club need to concentrate on and, like it or not, it is only the older generation that have the time available to be able to fill the pitches.
Couple this with the retirement age getting later and many others with aspirations to caravan will not have the time because of work even if children are off their hands.
In view of the limited time available to use a caravan, if my circumstances matched the above I'm damn sure I wouldn't spend tens of thousands of pounds, whether a caravan or motorhome to have it stand idle most of the year.
The one positive side to this is that us older generation are living longer and are generally healthier so we can carry on using sites all week for a lot longer.
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bang on, John....
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And when the marketing dept wake up to this fact instead of the "blue sky thinking?"that seems to be how some ideas?are formulated,and if as said the "Ego trip" that was launched in February was from feed back? it makes one wonder who was the target generation they got it from, it certainly was not from the older generations that keep the sites in buisiness for the majority of the season
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If you read motorhome forums, and magazines, it is quite obvious that there are a lot of motorhomers who are not Club members. Also not all of them are retired. When questions are asked and suggestions given that perhaps they could use Club facilities and services there is almost a degree of ignorance as to what the Clubs have to offer. Unlike people in my position who have progressed from a caravan to a motorhome and are long term members of the Club. I imagine it is this group of people that have been identified by the Club as a potential for increasing membership. Sales of motorhomes have increased significantly in recent years against a caravan market which is more static. Sales of new motorhomes are as yet not of the same order as caravans but it is not beyond the realms of possibility that within the next ten years that they may equal those of caravans on an annual basis. Now people can take a head in the sand attitude to those facts but the Club can't afford to do that.
David
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When on our last trip,we were in a local pub,and there were two couples next to us talking about the new caravans they had just used some of their retirement money to buy them,, we got talking to them but neither had wanted to join either of the clubs ,as they wanted quiet places to go as they had had children,and thought the clubs catered for them more than adults, after being"advised",that out of school holidays very few children are around(had not thought about that)i think we sold them the idea of one of the clubs
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You may be correct, David, about an increase in M/H sales - I just don't know. The other question that needs to be answered, though, is who is buying them. What age group do they fall into?
If, as I suspect, it is older people, (and I'm using that term very broadly), who are buying M/Hs and may have done the same as you and changed from a caravan to a motorhome, it still means that the younger generation will not be taking up the hobby. They haven't the time available during the week and, dare I suggest it, many don't have the money available to buy an outfit in the first place.
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I agree to some extent with this.
A couple of years ago the club tried to target families with young children. Tourer explorer characters and on site activities etc. I doubt it had much impact because everyone seems to have a character and a fun sheet and it's all a bit passé. I don't see an increase in families on site and haven't for a while.
So it seems obvious that the club has actually done a bit of work to identify the potential new blood and I think it's 40-55 year olds, still working but with older children that don't come with them. People like me.
I think if they just focus on motorhomers they are missing the point. There's a real interest in teardrops, folding campers, eribas amongst my friends as well. They need to attract everyone!
For me at least the rebrand and marketing falls short and in fact I've been alienated by a lot of it so won't continue membership. Neither will I recommend the club because I don't think it's genuinely inclusive. The thing they needed to address was the culture and perception of the club but it's not happening. A couple of weeks after the launch we see posts and reviews full of moans about other people on site and it's never addressed or answered properly by club staff.
They come across as wanting our money but not caring after that. Quite honestly it's not a good advert
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we may be the exception on this forum but no one in either of our families had anything to do with tent or caravans....we took one tenting holiday in the Vendee with friends 40 yrs ago and it hissed down every day, we vowed never again and have kept that vow
8 yrs ago friends decided to cycle from john o groats to lands end and asked if we would accompany them to scotland in their MH, drop them off there, keep it for 7 weeks and then pick them up in cornwall....
we tried a few sites and enjoyed the freedom it gave us, pulling in along the route where we pleased....we were hooked (up
).two months later we had bought our first MH.
so, sometimes (rarely) folk come at this hobby from an odd angle, but parents' previous experience will influence many.
however, i agree with Dk in that the club needs to recognise the changing market place (increasing MH population) and alter their offering accordingly.
by that i mean putting in cheaper, smaller, non-awning, stop-over pitches (perhaps like ferry pitches?) more akin to upmarket aires (but maintaining minimum spacing) to accommodate those who really do tour without requiring long stays or any facilities....
many sites weve used in france have this type of facility cordoned off from the main site.
the idea of these would be that they would be priced far more attractivly (especially out of season) than the std £21+ when all thats required is a (overnight) parking space.
we often bemoan the poor take up of pitches out of season and the club seems reluctant to really cut prices in the way that (eg) Haven do to attract customers, so perhaps a different offering might allow them to fight back against the (JVB's favourite term) loss leader, rather than just complaining about 'how they can do it'...
its about time the club got stuck in and tried to win back the off peak market rather than relying on annual increases at peak to offset those missing places.
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If they wanted to attract more yoof, then open all the pitches to every type of unit and it might stop some site looking like car parks as well.
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Opps, something went wrong! What I had typed did not appear so will have to try again later.
David
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As I was about to say!!!
As BB says above he and a lot of others start with a motorhome without any other experience of other forms of regular camping. When you see something called the Caravan Club you would naturally think it was just for caravans. We know that not to be the case but understandable if you are not familiar with the Club. So at the very least you can understand the name change. I have two sons, one 38 and the other 40 and despite spending most of their younger days caravanning with us neither shows any interest in buying a caravan. Now a motorhome might be a different matter if the hints are anything to go by
I expect the Club research has shown that those buying new motorhomes have a bit of spare cash so unlike me they won't be complaining when a site costs £25 a night in the low season so perhaps they looking towards improving their income stream which negates the need to have incentives to fill pitches? Time will tell?
David
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