Rv travel is on the rise. How can we "go on a trip at any time"

To promote the sustainable development of RV tourism, it is necessary to take a number of measures at the same time, including cultivating the consumption concept of RV travel, improving the parking lot, camping camp and viewing facilities around the highway, etc., and cultivating a number of self-driving tourism routes and self-driving tourism destinations.

"This time, I drove my RV south and got used to living in a different landscape." After 48 days and about 9,800 kilometers of driving, Beijing motorist Yu Litang completed a "small goal" for this year.

These years, more and more people like to travel by motorhome. However, the reporter's investigation found that while the RV travel market is booming, it is also facing constraints such as insufficient camps, difficult parking, and lack of norms.

Rv travel continues to grow

Outside the car is the scenery, inside is the life. Small living car is also called RV, because the car sleeping, stove, refrigerator, dining table and chair, toilet facilities and other living utensils are available, which is called "mobile home". Its biggest advantage is comfort and convenience.

On April 8, at the fifth Beijing RV Tourism Culture Expo of the RV Era 2023 held in Beijing Agricultural Exhibition Hall, nearly 100 RV companies showed their fist products.

This year just retired Wang Jie and his wife came from Tianjin to see the exhibition, he took a fancy to a red and white color, the price of 388,000 yuan RV. "Travelling in a motorhome is more relaxed than travelling with a group. I have a lot of driving experience, and I have a lot of leisure time after retirement, so I really want to try it."

Rv travel is not only attractive to older people after retirement, but also has a market among younger people.

"Half of RV travel is fuel, rice, oil and salt, half is mountains, lakes and seas, in life, but also on the road." After a 9-day RV trip, Cui Yan, a "post-90s" from Jiaozuo, Henan Province, couldn't wait to share the harvest of the trip in the circle of friends.

Go to Tar Temple to feel the ethnic customs, go to Qinghai Lake to look for blue ice, go to Lanzhou to enjoy ink Danxia, enjoy late-night hot pot in the night stay service area, and encounter delicious food in Chengdu... Along the way, Cui Yan has quite experienced: "RV for tourists, not only is a means of transportation and accommodation, but also provides us with an indispensable security to enjoy the scenery of the journey and boldly explore the unknown."

Rv can provide rest, bathing, cooking, entertainment and other life service functions, while saving part of the cost of accommodation, but also make long-distance travel more comfortable and interesting. For families with the elderly and children, the advantages of RV travel are more obvious.

Ctrip data show that since the beginning of this year, RV camping orders have risen sharply. "Today, on the highway, around scenic spots and even in residential areas, we can see all kinds of RV. Rv is moving from the introduction period of concept to the cultivation period of the market, it can be said that RV is entering the homes of ordinary people." Dai Bin, president of the China Tourism Academy, pointed out that after mass tourism has entered a new stage of comprehensive development, personalization and diversity have become the main characteristics of tourism consumption, among which the trend of self-driving travel and family travel is more and more obvious, and RV tourism is in a continuous growth trend.

Rv products are increasingly abundant

At present, Zhuping Township, Xiushui County, Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province, the road ju Jiujiang Ningzhou water town RV campground is ushering in the peak season of the year. It is the border of Jiangxi, Hubei and Hunan provinces, only 2 hours' drive from Nanchang and Jiujiang, 2.5 hours' drive from Changsha and 3 hours' drive from Wuhan.

"Mid-march to mid-November is the peak season for RV campsites. There are stationary motorhomes here, guests can also drive their motorhomes, we provide water and electricity and so on." Feng Dong, general manager of Shuixiang RV Campground in Ningzhou, Jiujiang, said that tourism has recovered significantly this year, and many people have chosen to drive for short distances.

'Many people travel in RVS because they like the quietness and leisure of camping,' Mr. Feng said. Rv consumer groups are mainly 60 to 70 years old, and now they are popularized to the "80" and "90".

Rv travel is becoming a new form of tourism development in our country, and the market dividend is constantly released.

Since 2019, Wolf Totem Travel Company has purchased 100 sets of RV, aiming at Qinghai, Gansu, Xinjiang and other places to carry out RV rental and RV group tour business. "The transportation distance between scenic spots in northwest China is long, and tourists have higher requirements for travel comfort, and the advantages of RV can be fully utilized." Wang Yankun, founder of the company, said that with the increase of domestic RV ownership, consumers' understanding of RV has gradually deepened, which has led to the development of customized RV Tours and small RV group Tours.

"Rv rental prices have gone up this year, by 5 to 10 per cent." Wang Yankun said that since March, the company has designed more than 10 tourist routes and launched a number of pre-sale activities, and the planned travel time is mainly in summer. At present, the overall sales have exceeded 5 million yuan, reaching 110% of the same period in 2019.

The gradually heating up RV tour market has attracted the active layout of tourism platforms. At the end of 2022, the flying pig travel network jointly launched a number of RV companies to "1 yuan play RV" activity, consumers can rent a RV for 1 yuan. According to the rules, consumers only need to pick up and return the RV at the specified time and place, and the halfway trip can be arranged by themselves. As one of the companies participating in the activity, the RV owned by Wolf Totem Travel Company has been snapped up every time it is on the line. "The RV transfer route is designed as a 'free' RV tour route, which can not only allow businesses to save transfer costs, but also enable consumers to get benefits, achieving a win-win situation." Wang Yankun said.

The RV wandering craze has boosted RV sales. "Driven by a series of policies to promote consumption, RV Tours characterized by 'low-density tourism' are sought after." In February this year, SAIC Chase Motor home business grew 200 per cent year on year." The relevant person in charge of SAIC Chase RV business said that in order to meet the increasingly diversified consumer demand, SAIC Chase launched more than 50 personalized products, covering B-type, C-type, ceiling camper, pickup trucks, heavy trucks, road towing, camp towing and other types of RV products.

Wang Kai, chairman of Hubei Shunyu RV Equipment Co., LTD., told reporters that as of March 10 this year, the company has completed sales of 245 units of residential vehicles, sales reached 143.85 million yuan, an increase of 299.5%. "By the end of 2022, the number of RVS in China has exceeded 240,000, up from 30,000 in 2015."

Wang Kai introduced that by the end of last year, there were more than 200 qualified RV manufacturers in the country, "some manufacturers with core technologies and focus on independent research and development have opened the gap with other manufacturers, and the future RV industry has good prospects."

According to the "Annual China RV (RV) Market Report 2022" released by the China Automobile Circulation Association, the annual sales volume of self-propelled RV in 2022 reached 11,391, with an average monthly sales volume of more than 1,000. There were 7,708 used caravans traded, an increase of 290% year-on-year.

Do your homework and travel green

The appeal of RV travel is clear for all to see, but that doesn't mean there are no barriers to entry.

Even people like Yu Litang, who has more than 10 years of RV driving experience, plan their routes, enrich their equipment and do their homework before each trip. He recently traded in his third RV. "The performance of today's motorhomes is much better than 10 years ago, from intelligent accessories to supporting facilities have made great progress, and the travel experience has been greatly improved." Yu Litang said.

Nowadays, many travel enthusiasts are eager to try motorhome travel. Cui Yan believes: "The size of the RV is large, requiring participants to have a certain driving experience and emergency response ability, the weather, road conditions and seasons during the journey are all factors to consider, even if it is the same destination, different seasons also need to make different preparations."

Cui Yan suggested that if the lack of long-distance travel experience, ordinary tourists had better consult a professional RV travel customization before traveling. According to the planned travel time and RV model, plan the best viewing route, and mark the places and camps that can provide parking, water and electricity services along the way to ensure travel safety and enhance travel experience.

Combined with his own experience, Cui Yan suggested that tour companies that provide RV rental services strengthen training for RV butlers, especially involving the use of different models of equipment, operating processes, troubleshooting, precautions and other issues, should inform consumers as far as possible in advance to ensure that problems encountered as soon as possible to solve. At the same time, for different types of consumer groups, travel companies should provide personalized services in terms of travel insurance, safety seats, car recorders, cooking utensils, etc., to cover the travel needs of different groups as far as possible.

Optimize supporting and standardized development

The popularity of RV travel is rising, and there are also worries in happiness, among which, the more prominent problem is the retarded development of camp. Wang Yankun believes that the insufficient number of RV camps is an important reason for restricting the rapid development of RV tourism. At present, the supply chain of RV camps is not robust, the quality of existing camps is uneven, and many potential consumers are concerned about the lack of docking places after departure.

The relevant person in charge of SAIC Chase RV business said that the current normative RV camp is not in place, many users find a camp on the Internet, it is likely to encounter inaccurate positioning, people to the reservation information is not allowed, after entering the damaged can not be used.

"When long-distance travel becomes possible again, RV demand will start to flourish again. However, I am afraid that RV travel will continue the pattern before the epidemic, some are parked around the city of RV, mainly to provide people with fresh consumption, and some are consumer self-driven RV travel." Li Xinjian, a professor at Beijing Second Foreign Studies University and executive director of the Capital Culture and Tourism Development Research Institute, believes that because the camp system that meets the RV parking is still in its infancy, the RV travel service system and the RV travel product ecology are far from formed, this year's RV tour will be mainly restorative development.

"From the current RV market, the overall sales are on the rise, but the base is still small. Some consumers report that RV travel faces constraints such as inadequate infrastructure and few professional camps." Liu Xiaolong, secretary-general of the Beijing RV Camping Self-driving Tour Association, said that from the use of scenarios, the comfort and flexibility of RV travel must be solved first.

Dai Bin believes that for RV tourism, the current constraints are also reflected in highway traffic, and it remains to be clarified what kind of management should be used for RV, and the acquisition of driver's licenses also needs to be further standardized. In addition, the tourism destinations and routes suitable for people's combination of travel and residence are still in the stage of spontaneous exploration.

Dai Bin said that to promote the healthy and sustainable development of RV tourism, it is necessary to take many measures at the same time, including continuously cultivating the consumption concept of RV travel, improving the infrastructure such as parking lots, camping camps and viewing facilities on expressways, and cultivating a number of self-driving tourism routes and self-driving tourism destinations. In addition, we should also improve financial insurance, rescue, maintenance and so on.

Li Xinjian believes that the future of RV tourism is related to the formation of thematic RV tour lines, standardized RV camps, diversified peripheral products, and convenient RV rental systems. "At present, many camps in China have relatively little interaction with their surroundings. There is still a lot of room for improvement in the construction of RV rental platforms, the convenience of rental, the professionalism of RV navigation, the construction of RV camps and the development of products around camps."

In 2022, 14 departments including the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Healthy and Orderly Development of Camping Tourism and Leisure. The guideline proposes to promote the construction of public camps, expand the scale of public camps, and improve the quality of services. "As long as these supporting elements are really in place, the release of RV travel demand can have enough supply side protection, the development of RV travel can enter the fast lane, and the market size can continue to grow." Li Xinjian said.