After years of sustainable growth, the epidemic supercharges the outdoor entertainment industry. Service-providing startups such as camper vans, private campsites, and trail tracking applications become relevant to millions of new users when COVID-19 discontinues indoor entertainment in large quantities for outdoor entertainment. Startups like Outdoor, AllTrails, Cabana, Hipcamp, Kibbo, and Lowergear Outdoor have grown significantly, but to continue this, outsourced customers who were very interested outside the home during the epidemic must turn it into a lifelong interest.
Social media, increased environmentalism and high urbanization have already sparked a surge in popularity. Between 2014 and 2019, there was a 72% increase in camp people more than three times a year, mostly encouraged by young millennials, young families with children, and non-participants. However, 2020 was a different animal: after months of shelter orders, extensive shutdowns, and physical distance, it has become the only place of safe socialization outside.
In South Dakota, Lewis and Clark recreation space grew by 59% among visitors from 2019 to 2020. In the epidemic year, consumers spent $887 billion on outdoor recreation, more than a combination of pharmaceuticals and fuel, according to the Outdoor Industry Association. In addition, it will continue to grow as hiking equipment alone expected to reach a market size of $7.4 billion by 2027, a compound annual growth rate of 6.3%. The camping and the caravan are going on at a more intense moment.
In addition to international travel, vacations transferred to foreign resorts for domestic road trips, self-help fares and camping. In 2020, the market for camping and caravans was about $40 billion and projected to grow 13% this year to just over $45 billion.
With primary parks closing and national parks closing, private camping sites closing and indoor travel closed, many outdoor startups had breakout years. In the outdoors, the peer-to-peer camper van rental market, reported that it saw 44% of all bookings in the company’s history in 2020. Campsite booking platform Hipcamp says it sent three times as much money to landowners in 2020 as it did in 2020. In addition, it not just outsiders who take advantage of the housework: Cabana, Camper van rentals start in 2020, saying 70% of its customers have never been before. Camper did not rent a van or RV and another 26% did it once.
