Caravanning: The Young Future of the Old Game

Caravanning or camping brings out the adventurous you from inside. Yeah it's true, but the question here is- Does being adventurous has to do anything with the age? No, it doesn’t. Being adventurous has nothing to do with the age, yet the demographics of caravanning people speak something else. Caravanning is as exciting as any other activity (or surely can get equally exciting), but it finds itself majorly taken up by the older people of the lot. Well, you do see a lot of families caravanning yet the facts support something else. Stats from one such Caravanning Club shows the average age of a caravanner with them is 55 years. Since the day caravanning found its place as an outdoor activity a strong perception has come along with it- caravanning is for older people.

Eyeing for younger people for caravanning some brands are ending up selling something entirely different from caravanning. They talk about mountain bikes, music festivals, surfing, but unfortunately this is not caravanning rather its a crossover. Well whatever the trend might be, numbers paint an entirely different picture. Statistics tells us some 40 years back in 1975 the part of the generation that touched 65 or over was a mere 14/100. Coming down 4 decades in 2015 the same figure went up by almost 4 making it 18 of 100. And so everyone’s awe this number will keep rising by the day.

In another 8 years it is expected to be 23.6% and by another 3 decades down it would touch 24.6%. That means in a period of 70 years (1975-2045) the perceived age group for caravanning would grow by 80%. Well, another survey tells us that around 70% of Uk’s household wealth is held by people who are 50 plus. And what could say as the cherry on the top is the fact that the old generation which holds the major household income also hold “all the time in the world” for caravanning as compared to their younger counterparts who are busy making money?

By the income ratio, even the present looks good for the industry. As all the above are facts and if that's happening in the future, why are the caravanning brands running after the youngsters?

Caravanning industry doesn’t need a new target market to grow rather the contemporary target market is growing.