campsite scenery. Photo provided by the interviewee.
"Can we upgrade us to a homestay without staying in the tent?" In a light luxury camping site in the suburbs, camper Du Chen heard the accompanying customers consult the staff with this.
The light luxury camping experience of 1,400 yuan per night made Du Chen feel extremely awkward: the lawn camp, which is not very large, is crowded with the camps, and the barbecue stalls under the camps are from time to time. It is like sleeping in the tent in a hot environment. In addition to this light luxury camping, Du Chen was disappointed by several other camping experiences in the suburbs of Beijing. He described the suburban camping site as nothing more than copying the city's entertainment activities into the woods, and the natural scenery of the camp and the project experience are no different from the city.
Based on the principle of pursuing economical benefits, during this National Day holiday, camping novice Zhang Miao chose a campground with only 200 yuan ticket fee and prepared tents and other camping items by himself. However, everything was ready. When driving to the camp, Zhang Miao was stunned - the lush green lawn in the diagram is now yellow and bald, and the originally clear small lake in the picture has become a stinky ditch in reality. The seemingly open lawn in the picture is limited in actual usable area and is densely packed with tent sky curtains. In addition, the barbecue set of 200 yuan per person requires renting barbecue equipment. The charcoal provided by the camp is smoky and irritating when used, and the smell is pungent.
On the night of camping, Zhang Miao happened to encounter rainy weather. Without preparing the response measures in advance, he consulted the camp staff for waterproofing and charging issues, but only got an answer that "customers need to prepare for themselves". The next day, Zhang Miao, who was soaked in the bedding and the phone was out of power, described himself as "extraordinary embarrassing".
Zhang Miao spent a total of more than 600 yuan in the camp for this camp. In the morning, he was wet from the sky while getting wet in the rain when he heard a new group of customers joining the camp complaining, "What the hell is this? It's different from the picture at all, it's really a sucker."
After the National Day holiday, many camping lightning protection posts frequently appeared on social media platforms, among which poor camp environment, unlimited flow, random charges, and poor service became the hardest hit areas for complaints. Searching "camping and lightning protection" as the keyword "searching" on Xiaohongshu can get 3,100+ notes. While consumers complain that the service quality is not proportional to the price, some camp owners also said that the camp business has large investment in the early stage, and the subsequent operation and maintenance costs are almost the same as income, making it difficult to recover.
So, at the moment when the camping fever continues to heat up, how is the business operation of the camping site? What problems are faced in the process of development? At a time when camping is a gust of wind, how should camps cultivate loyal users? Can low-frequency camp business go far? In this regard, a reporter from the Beijing News Beike Finance interviewed several relevant camp leaders to try to find answers to the above questions.
Can the "crowded" and noisy camp carry people's yearning for "poetry and distance"?
On the weekend, I called three or five friends, brought delicious food and wine, breathed fresh air in the mountains and forests, tasted tea and cooked wine, and watched the sunset and starry sky - the explosive camping in the suburbs provided Du Chen with new ideas for friends to gather and play.
's idea is beautiful, but the reality is often not satisfactory. During the first camping trip, Du Chen and his friends chose a camp day camp. After nearly two hours of riding, Du Chen and his friends arrived at the campsite. The camp is located in a forest, with a small area. Apart from the densely packed tent skylight, the remaining area is almost filled with children's recreational facilities, and there are not many complete green lawns in the bare woods. It was the meal time, and thick smoke floated from the dense camp from time to time, which smelled pungent, and the entire camp was shrouded in "fog". Moreover, due to the lack of current restrictions, the entire camp is vast and children's crying and shouting from time to time. Coupled with the hot summer weather and the smoky barbecue stall, this mountain forest that should have been quiet and quiet has become a downtown city, which only makes Du Chen feel restless.
A camp is filled with tents.
During the entire afternoon camping period, Du Chen and others did not carry out other outdoor activities except chatting under the sky.Most of the projects provided by the camp are children's entertainment and education projects, and because of the lack of flow restrictions, the entire camp is crowded with people, and even a Frisbee venue that can be used for group activities cannot be squeezed out.
For the second camping trip, Du Chen and his friends carefully selected a wild and luxurious campground known for their beautiful environment. There is also a water area in the campground - known as the beautiful internet celebrity check-in spot. In addition to the still long journey, Du Chen was quite satisfied with the natural scenery of the camp, but the accommodation experience in the camp made him feel that he was extremely "subjugated". There is no air conditioning in the tent that costs 1,400 yuan per night, and there are almost no other facilities except for a simple bed and table. When you fall asleep at night, the environment in the tent is stuffy and hot, and the desktop air-conditioning fan provided by the camp is deafening in the closed environment.
After experiencing three or four campsites of all sizes, Du Chen lost interest in camping in the camp. He believes that camping in the camp is nothing more than copying the city's entertainment projects to the suburbs, and camping regular projects such as Frisbee, barbecue, hand-brewed coffee, movie screenings, etc. can be experienced at a lower price in the city, and you don't have to endure long distances. The next time he camped, he planned to choose a city park or simply be a backpacker and drive himself to find beautiful scenery in the suburbs.
Du Chen's example is not uncommon. Under social media platforms and camping posts, comments such as "I just returned from the camp and need to improve too much", "If the services and facilities like this in the future, people's enthusiasm will be consumed at one time, and there will be no customer sources in the future", "I feel like a large number of campsites will disappear next year" and other comments are not uncommon.
In response to various complaints from netizens, Tang Hao, the head of the online business of Xinggu Campground, told Beike Finance reporter that the customer complaints he had heard in the camp were diverse, covering almost all kinds of complaints from social media platforms. Some customers even sent him the pricing list pictures of the five-star hotel in the city and asked him, "I have this money, why can't I go to the hotel to enjoy it."
According to iMedia Consulting data, as of October 15, 2021, there were more than 30,000 camping enterprises in China, with more than 8,000 new camping enterprises and more than 15,000 camping enterprises respectively in 2020 and 2021.
As the relevant person in charge of the camp, Tang Hao said that although the camp business is currently popular, there is no systematic operation standard. Camp merchants still need to work with customers and constantly correct mistakes in order to formulate more complete service standards.
Shell Finance reporters checked relevant information and found that as early as 2021, the Zhejiang Huzhou City Tourism New Business Project Safety Supervision Leading Group was the first to issue a series of policy documents such as "Huzhou City Camping Camp Scenic Construction and Service Guidelines (Trial)", "Huzhou City Camping Camp Scenic Safety Prevention Requirements (Trial)", and "Huzhou City Camping Camp Scenic Management Measures (Trial)", and formulated detailed regulations on camp classification, basic conditions for camp construction, infrastructure within camp, garbage and sewage treatment, etc.
In August this year, Beijing Yanqing also issued the "Yanqing District Scenic Area Tent Camping Management Guidelines (Trial)", which includes nine parts, including scope of application, basic requirements, and division of responsibilities. It clarified the application process and construction rules of camping, refined the division of responsibilities of 13 departments such as cultural tourism, public security, and gardens, and formulated three management mechanisms: daily supervision, emergency management, and safety management.
However, camping-related regulatory policies are still in the trial stage. A camp merchant told Beike Finance reporters in an interview that for merchants, it is not easy for some contents in the regulatory documents to be implemented. They hope that the government can listen to the opinions of enterprises more in the subsequent regulatory policy formulation process.
Sinan's camp. Photo by Li Menghan, a reporter from Beijing News Shell Finance. The profit problem of camp business behind the difficulty of recovering money
The rapid development of the camping industry has also given birth to some camp merchants who make quick money by relying on traffic bonus .
Sinan, founder of Beijing Yeyingbang Camp, told Beike Finance reporter that according to what he knows, some camps are subject to geographical restrictions and cannot carry out other activities, so the revenue is relatively simple. Merchants can only make money on holidays, so it is understandable to raise prices during holidays. But "when it's in the wind, many people are cutting leeks."Sinan revealed that such camps that "cut leeks" generally have low land acquisition costs, and do not even require any land acquisition costs. For example, some businesses directly circle a piece of land at the entrance of their homestays, transport some sand and stones to decorate it, and directly go online for sale. This type of camp is targeted at individual customers, collects camp ticket fees, does some equipment rental business, and sets up some children's entertainment projects in the camp. It costs a lot of prices during holidays, and it will be sold at 9.9 yuan in the off-season. After experiencing this type of camp, many deceived consumers have lost their enthusiasm for camping and characterized the camp business as "there are random charges when they are enclosed," and this "cutting leeks" behavior seriously damaged the market ecology.
Si Nan said that in fact, customers and peers hate this behavior, but "this industry has risen too quickly. Currently, more than 300 camps on the market are of this type."
Sinan believes that for businesses who are serious about camping, what everyone hopes most is that the relevant departments can formulate detailed and specific industry supervision standards as soon as possible and regulate the venue, services, pricing and other content of camp business. "After you have standards, you can filter out a large number of merchants. If everyone is selling them, bad money drives out good money, and the result is that the price is selling them lower and lower, and good products and good services cannot be produced." Whether the camp business can make profits is mainly reflected in three aspects - cost, traffic and repurchase rate. If the price is getting lower and lower, good products and good services cannot be produced, and the repurchase rate becomes lower and lower, then low-frequency camp business profits will become a problem.
From the perspective of input and output, land and infrastructure occupy the majority of the early investment of the camp, while labor costs account for the majority of the later stage. When
was initially selected, Si Nan traveled almost all districts in Beijing. Considering the location of the camp and the surrounding characteristic cultural industries, he gave up the free land resources of Fangshan and chose Tongzhou , which is closer to the urban area of Beijing, and accordingly paid more expensive land rent. Si Nan revealed that he has invested nearly 3 million yuan from land acquisition to infrastructure construction, and only 87 mu of the 320 mu of land currently rented have been developed.
Sinan told Beike Finance reporter that the campsite cannot make profits by relying solely on individual customer ticket revenue. Currently, the revenue mainly comes from the site contracting business of B-end customers.
market competition is fierce. In order to increase the competitiveness of the camp market, Sinan's camp was initially priced slightly lower than the market price. During the National Day, when the overnight tickets for campsites of the same type are as high as 299 yuan per person, the price of Sinan Camp is still 159 yuan per person. Labor costs account for a large proportion of the operation and maintenance of the camp. There are more than 30 employees in the camp in Sinan, responsible for the environmental maintenance of the camp and the pioneering work of the area to be developed. With employee wages, operation and maintenance items procurement, and camping equipment depreciation, the monthly operation and maintenance cost of the camping area is about 100,000 yuan.
Compared with the high operation and maintenance costs, the camp’s individual passenger ticket revenue is slightly thin.
The camp business behind the difficulty of making a return is a very obvious business in the peak and peak season, and there is even a difference of low and prosperous life within a week. At the hottest time in Beijing in August this year, there were only a handful of customers in Sinan Camp, and almost no customers were there during the week. However, the monthly operation and maintenance costs have not been reduced. Zhang Xue, who joined the camp earlier, has been relatively perfect in terms of supporting facilities and project arrangements for the camp. Zhang Xue revealed that because the camp equipment is expensive and the outdoor use loss rate is high, equipment such as tents and sky curtains need to be replaced almost every six months.
In Zhang Xue's view, after entering 2022, the 1.0 version of the pure camp concept of camp business will become increasingly difficult to make profits. If the camp only meets the needs of consumers for accommodation, check-in and experience, with the increase of new entrants, the substitutability will only become stronger and stronger. After
1.0 version, where is the future path of camp business?
This year on National Day, Jia Jia and Xiao Jing experienced the service of "Camp Angel (people who help customers customize camping activities)". All camping arrangements are handled by the manager, and the content of the event is communicated in advance in the WeChat group.Under the guidance of the manager, Jia Jia's two-day and one-night camping experience was fulfilling and easy - shuttle bus picking up and dropping off, without having to build camping equipment or clean up after-dinner hygiene, Frisbee, hand-grinding coffee, werewolf killing games, painting, meditation, barbecue, singing K and other activities were arranged in an orderly manner.
In the evening, the surrounding environment became quiet. Jia Jia and a group of people sat around the lawn listening to music, making tea, drinking, and enjoying the last relaxation time of the day. When it was time to sleep, the camp started to curfew, and the electric blankets and air mattresses in the tent were already ready. The next day, they were awakened by the fragrance and sunshine of the grass again. After a night, the physical and mental fatigue disappeared.
Jiajia, who had a good experience when camping for the first time, told the reporter of Beike Finance that he would choose camping as a holiday relaxation activity in the future, but he might experience it in a new camp. When asking about camping satisfaction, Xiaojing also gave the same answer, "Which camp does not matter, as long as the service is good, you can save worry." After
1.0 version, light luxury camping with strong experience is quietly emerging, but it is facing the above-mentioned difficulty in repurchasing.
In major campgrounds, barbecue, frisbee, open-air movies, and children's entertainment projects seem to have become standard, and camp service projects that are easy to copy and imitate are blooming everywhere. For consumers, when the camp situation and supporting projects are similar, most people are more willing to choose a different camp to camp each time.
Tang Hao from Xinggu Camp in Beijing told Beike Finance reporters that under the nature of light luxury camping experiential consumption, if you want to increase the repurchase rate, you can only work hard on the content. First, you must have some camp special projects, and then you must let customers experience new projects every time you come, and finally you must deepen your efforts in the depth of the project content. He explained that taking Frisbee as an example, many camps provide such projects, and they are basically in the form of novices teaching and group competitions, which is a shallow content, but in the field of in-camp education, this course originated abroad, including simple outdoor exploration, survival, plant insect recognition and stargazing, etc., which itself is a relatively in-depth content.
As Beijing cools down, Sinan's camp has started to build ice and snow projects. He also said that in the spring of the camp, some flowers will be transplanted for customers to enjoy. In this way, customers can experience different camping scenery every once in a while and come to the camping activity projects that are changing with the times.
Zhang Xue believes that doing camp business is essentially doing outdoor activities business. Camping is just a carrier. It can combine with more hobbies and drive the development of the entire outdoor industry, which is the popular "camping +". Zhang Xue, who has been engaged in the outdoor industry for more than ten years, paid more attention to the camp outdoor content operation when he first founded the camp. In addition to regular camp projects, his team can also provide special projects such as powered surfboards, powered hydrofoils, simulated rock climbing , and rock drop . In addition, Zhang Xue said that his team has accumulated a lot of experience since 2012 and has the ability to output content continuously. "The camp has content all year round."
In addition to the small and exquisite specialty camps, some domestic camp brands have gradually begun to emerge in the capital market.
At present, one of the leading brands in the camp industry, Big Hot Wilderness has completed its own camp layout in more than 20 cities including Beijing, Jiaxing , Zhuhai, Sanya, etc., and has opened its own camps to the public. Camp management also tends to be large-scale and standardized. For example, the hot wilderness camps across the country use the same outdoor equipment, and the catering packages are also consistent across the country. Public information shows that in 2021, Big Hot Wilderness received two consecutive rounds of financing of over 10 million yuan, jointly invested by investment institutions and companies such as Little Dinosaur Fund , Weiyi Capital, Mugaodi , and other investment institutions and companies. The funds are mainly used for camp expansion, market operations and outdoor equipment and supplies business lines attempts.
, one of the other leading brands, Hi King, also said in an interview with a reporter from Beike Finance that during the operation, Hi King designed a complete standardized service system to control the service quality of camps in various places.For example, when choosing a site, HiKing often chooses areas with a city population of more than 3 million and a camp within 80 kilometers of the city. The site selection targets are mostly scenic spots, and they cooperate through leasing or sharing with scenic spot operations. At present, the investment in HiKing's single camp is between 600,000 and 800,000 yuan, with a scale of about 30 tents. In the first half of this year, Hi King received an angel round financing of one million yuan, and the investor was the light luxury tent manufacturer "Yiwu Boting Tourism Development Co., Ltd.". After the
1.0 version, "Camping +" is becoming the focus of differentiated competition. Can it go further while leading customers to poetry and the distance? (At the request of the interviewees, Du Chen, Zhang Miao, Jia Jia and Xiao Jing are all pseudonyms)
Beijing News Shell Finance reporter Li Menghan Editor Yue Caizhou Proofreading Lu Qian
(Reporter WeChat: chabaidao749, please note the purpose of adding contact information)
