It's official...we are crazy for campervans

RowenaBCAMC
RowenaBCAMC Forum Participant Posts: 1,732 ✭✭✭
1,000 Likes 1000 Comments
edited October 2018 in Caravan & Motorhome Chat #1

The Caravan and Motorhome Club and Warners Group Publications have carried out a survey to get the latest campervan facts.

There are around 30,000 campervanners who are already members of the Club. Check out our infographic for some interesting facts about campervans. You can also view here: Campervan Infographic

«13456713

Comments

  • Oneputt
    Oneputt Club Member Posts: 9,144 ✭✭✭
    2,500 Likes 1000 Comments
    edited October 2018 #2

    Quarter of a million MH on the roads in the U.K. yet the club only have 30k as members, wonder why?

    I will stick with my caravan I think

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
    1000 Comments
    edited October 2018 #3

    Campervans are not motor caravanssurprisedwink

  • Tinwheeler
    Tinwheeler Forum Participant Posts: 23,142 ✭✭✭
    10,000 Likes 1000 Comments Name Dropper
    edited October 2018 #4

    Why be such a pedant, JV?yell

  • young thomas
    young thomas Forum Participant Posts: 11,356
    1000 Comments
    edited October 2018 #5

    tucked in the bottom left of the graphic was the word 'Spontenaiety' and how folk just want up and go....

    yet whenever any mention of gearing up CC sites to offer a less 'full fat' experience to mirror the 'spontaneous' desire of this fast growing sector to come and go on spec, it falls on deaf ears.....worse, it's decried as not the thing....

    perhaps Ro could pass this back to the 'xxxxx' team and see how this fits with the club ethos of full fat and constant booking..smile

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
    1000 Comments
    edited October 2018 #6

    Just putting the post into contextwinkcool

    do you now own a campervan (PVC)surprised

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
    1000 Comments
    edited October 2018 #7

    I think that still applies to a lot of LV owners (spontenaiety?)

  • young thomas
    young thomas Forum Participant Posts: 11,356
    1000 Comments
    edited October 2018 #8

    yes it does, my point is that this 'heralding' of more (and more) campervans only reinforces (in the graphic) what has been discussed recently...

    namely that usage and subsequent changes in requirements are most definitely afoot.

    perhaps the referenced survey really has got under the skin of this change process....perhaps not.

    hopefully, the answers are being interpreted correctly and these changes in habits/requirement result in the club thinking a bit deeper about what this might mean in terms of service provision, especially in the areas of satisfying 'spontenaiety'.

    its no good trumpeting that the market is volatile and noting the particular direction it's taking if it doesn't react by offering the services these 'spontaneous' vanners actually need....

  • Navigateur
    Navigateur Club Member Posts: 3,880 ✭✭✭✭✭
    1000 Comments
    edited October 2018 #10

    So is this enough to justify a further £2M to incorporate "Campervan" into the trading title if that is what people actually call them (in the latter part of 2018 that is) . . . ?

    In a year's time or so it could be another name alltogether. Good basis for a Christmas Quiz - "What will the boxes on wheels we use to travel and live in be called in 2030?"  The name I like is "Wheelhouses".

  • young thomas
    young thomas Forum Participant Posts: 11,356
    1000 Comments
    edited October 2018 #11

    which is why I've asked Ro to take this back to the team....

    however, you're perfectly free to debate (or not) what the increasing numbers mean.

    if nothing at all, why the highlighting by this thread....

    surely the club saw it as 'significant' by trotting out the 'Campervan Infographic'?

    surely we can't print a significant headline and then not discuss it?

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
    1000 Comments
    edited October 2018 #12

    The "small print" on the "infographic" the info is from three sources the cc,volkswagon,and warners publications,wink

  • young thomas
    young thomas Forum Participant Posts: 11,356
    1000 Comments
    edited October 2018 #13

    yes it is, but the point remains that the club (Ro) has seen fit to produce a new thread to tell us all about this 'exciting' set of figures...

    what are we all supposed to do.....shrug our shoulders and think 'so what', or comsider what it might mean?

    .....after all, this is a caravan and motorhome forum, isn't it?

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
    1000 Comments
    edited October 2018 #14

    coolJust pointing out what and who the info is about as VW campervans have been around since the Splitty of the 1950s,and the later "slammers/wizbangs PVC have morphed from them, but without  normally so many surfboards carried,and have normally been the first with thousand around the world, not athe big Gin palace owners that now think their idea "wild?" and spontainiace camping is a new idea that has to be addressedsurprised

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,644 ✭✭✭
    5,000 Likes 1000 Comments Name Dropper
    edited October 2018 #15

    Wonder how much of our subscriptions was spent coming up with this survey, which could well have been better spent on site facilities?

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
    1000 Comments
    edited October 2018 #16

    After last years "rebrand costs?"yell

  • QFour
    QFour Forum Participant Posts: 442
    edited October 2018 #17

    They are going to have to do something. We have just stopped on an Aire in Alicante. €13 a night. Room for 45 Motorhomes. Computerised entry system. One guy not full time runs it. You don’t book you just turn up.

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
    1000 Comments
    edited October 2018 #18

    All with the fire breaks that are recommended in  the uk,and apart from a few very busy sites there are surely hundreds of uk sites you can just turn up at

  • young thomas
    young thomas Forum Participant Posts: 11,356
    1000 Comments
    edited October 2018 #19

    no one is saying that spontaneous is something new....many years ago folk could be as spontaneous as they like as sites weren't as busy as they are now...this has produced a necessity (and a culture) of virtually always having to book.

    what's coming out is that there is an upsurge in sales of smaller vans where the owners just want to return to that get up and go ability.

    to have to keep booking sites stifles this process.

    if the club is looking a bit deeper into the statistics it might see that the one size fits all doesn't fit well with what the Infographic clearly spells out.

    we'll see if there is any extra info coming back that puts a bit of flesh on these bones.

  • peedee
    peedee Club Member Posts: 9,387 ✭✭✭
    2,500 Likes 1000 Comments Name Dropper
    edited October 2018 #20

    I think the certificates locations and sites will do well out of the trends especially those with hard standings. I have also been reading Cantebury is expanding its Aire.

    peedee

     

  • young thomas
    young thomas Forum Participant Posts: 11,356
    1000 Comments
    edited October 2018 #21

    perhaps they'll be better spent on the type of facilities this burgeoning section of the vanning world are looking for....

    after all, I guess the club actually does do something with the info garnered from exercises such as this?

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
    1000 Comments
    edited October 2018 #22

    But then most ideas like this survey come from the well funded (as most companies)marketing department.who,come up with anything that makes the cost of them look as if they are"worth  the money?"surprised

    but when the cost of their "blue sky thinking" is looked at by those who will end up paying for it,the real world of thinking kicks inwink

  • Tinwheeler
    Tinwheeler Forum Participant Posts: 23,142 ✭✭✭
    10,000 Likes 1000 Comments Name Dropper
    edited October 2018 #23

    BB, you’ve not been vanning for many years but, you have heard correctly, we could indeed just turn up and get a pitch on demand on most sites back in the 70s and 80s.

    What sites they were, too. Pitches were jammed in and facilities were almost non-existent. Often, it was rather like pitching in a car park. Hmm, that sounds familiar.smile

    Then, in response to demand and competition, sites improved in an effort to capture more business. Van ownership took off and the hobby, in a way, became a victim of its own success as more took to the road and enjoyed the luxury of the really good sites we have today.

     

  • GVD
    GVD Forum Participant Posts: 175
    edited October 2018 #24

    Why all the bickering. Its the persons choice whether "campervan" or caravan. Personally I will stick to my caravan which I have been doing for 35years plus. I also like to up and go, and do so, motormover is a god send. Recently did France and stayed at 10 different sites, from Municipals to "all singing and dancing". As long as thee is room to accommodate both sets of "traveller" why worry...……… unless of course the present club want to re brand as The Motorhome Club......

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
    1000 Comments
    edited October 2018 #25

    I do not know what sites you used in the past but unless on rallies or cls we always had decent (for those days) facilities and EHU on most cc sites although normally max 10 amp in the old type grey steel bollardssurprised,

    ps and even the few campers and motor caravans,did not seem to have the "problems" that seem prevalent todaycool

  • Tinwheeler
    Tinwheeler Forum Participant Posts: 23,142 ✭✭✭
    10,000 Likes 1000 Comments Name Dropper
    edited October 2018 #26

    JV, I’m talking of around 40+ years ago. Sites did not have EHU in the times I’m talking of and I did not say they were CAMC sites. 

    Anyway, that's an irrelevance as I was confirming and elaborating on BB's comment about spontaneity. 

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
    1000 Comments
    edited October 2018 #27

    So was i ,and spontaneity is still alive and kicking,it is the spoon fed of todays society that seem"afraid" to go for itcool

  • DavidKlyne
    DavidKlyne Club Member Posts: 13,860 ✭✭✭
    5,000 Likes 1000 Comments Name Dropper Photogenic
    edited October 2018 #28

    It might not have cost very much beyond a bit of research from available statistics by one of two Club staff on the CMC part of the information? I expect the rest was done by Warner's for inclusion in their many magazines.  Any cost would have most likely come from the Club's advertising budget which if not spent on this project would have been spent on another advertising project so most unlikely to have dented the site refurbishment budget. 

  • OnlyJen
    OnlyJen Forum Participant Posts: 146
    100 Comments
    edited October 2018 #29

    No one seems to ask the  question: what is a campervan and what is a motorhome?

    I had that survey.

    It was all about being a vehicle that goes places.

    Well, for me it is a vehicle that can go any place, mostly under 2m height barrier.

    It is a vehicle that carries a minimum of self-survival eg. work your own toilet needs out, we do not supply one.

    It is a vehicle that can turn right instead of left out of fairelight, where the road narrows to <2m , and does not give you heart failure.

    It is a vehicle that can rumble over the outback of unmade roads and does not shake itself to bits.

    The CC seems to have a different definition.

    I would love a motorhome but it simply would not allow me to go where I want to go and enjoy the lifestyle that goes with it.

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
    1000 Comments
    edited October 2018 #30

    I class a campervan as a go almost anywhere type of LV that can also be your daily transport,and "if" we went down that route again would be our choice

  • EasyT
    EasyT Forum Participant Posts: 16,194
    1000 Comments
    edited October 2018 #31

    sealed