A tent set up "poem and distance" camping has gradually become a new choice for tourism

Stay away from the hustle and bustle of the city, choose a place to camp, or play with children, or have a picnic with relatives and friends... With the diversification of travel methods, camping has increasingly become a new choice for people to get close to nature and enjoy a comfortable life. Many people use tents to build their own "poetry and distance".

Camping, as a new type of tourism that has become increasingly popular, has injected new vitality into the cultural tourism industry under the epidemic and has become a new outlet of the industry. With the continuous promotion of global tourism, all parts of our province are grasping the new trend of camping, promoting the deep integration of camping and rural tourism, and making camping leisure a new growth point of tourism consumption.

Jindao RV camping site in Xijing Village, Licheng County. Photo by Li Meixia, chief reporter of Shanxi Economic Daily

Close to nature,

Family groups prefer camping and leisure

Wei Xiaobin, a "post-90s" Taiyuan citizen who loves RV camping, said in an interview that his family spent two days in the Wolong Bay Camp of Manghe River, a local artist in Gongshang Village, Manghe Town, Yangcheng County this summer. The campsite is in the forest valley. During the day, he and the children ride bicycles together and walk through the forest in the wind, feeling particularly happy; Count the stars at night and enjoy a relaxed and pleasant life.

Like Wei Xiaobin, many people choose to go camping outdoors on holidays or weekends. Colorful tents and sumptuous picnics set up people's "poetry and distance". Adults play cards, enjoy tea and chat together, children play games and fly kites, and enjoy their own leisure time in their own world.

Nowadays, many people's way of traveling has also begun to change - purchase or rent "RV" to travel, combine tourism and life perfectly, relax and enjoy the holiday. What is particularly attractive to tourists is that the RV destination is outdoors, and campfire parties, picnic barbecues, forest cycling and other rich and interesting camping leisure activities can also be held.

The reporter learned that, in order to meet the needs of the camping tourism market, since 2015, the "RV camping" channel has been set up in the donkey mother self-driving tourism sector. The United Nations has launched dozens of high-quality RV self-driving camping products for tourists in well-known professional RV camping sites, with destinations throughout the country's leisure resorts. This year's National Day holiday, around the theme of camping, we launched a variety of products, including urban camping, desert camping, wild camping, festival camping, and so on, which are favored by the tourism market.

As the first batch of 5C self-driving RV campsites in China, Shanxi Yunzhong River self-driving RV campsite, adhering to the principle of "being close to nature and enjoying comfort", combined with local hot spring resources in Xinzhou, has made an exclusive customization of the campervan, added massage surfing hot spring pool, and brought a new leisure experience for tourists.

Upgrades,

"Camping+" products are popular

At present, "short-distance tour" and "local tour" have become the first choice for citizens to travel on holidays, and also let camping, an originally small outdoor activity, enter the public's view. Although there are many places in Shanxi where tents can be set up for free, people feel that just playing in this way is not enough, so some "camping+" products came into being with the new demand.

Since it was put into operation in July 2018, Shanxi Yunzhonghe Self-driving RV Campground has introduced North American architectural style and integrated western camping culture, which has been popular with different consumer groups. At present, the camp integrates accommodation, catering, entertainment, outdoor sports and hot spring health care, and becomes one of the tourist destinations for tourists to enjoy tranquility, leisure, nature, ecology and green.

"The camp has 9 motorhomes, 23 single-deck villas and 5 barbecue campsites. It also provides hardware equipment such as motorhome rental, self-driving motorhome supply, outdoor camping tent construction, etc. Each campsite is an independent area, equipped with sunshade, barbecue platform, leisure chair, wireless WiFi, etc., which can provide tourists with diversified, multi-disciplinary and multi-channel outdoor cultural and tourism life experience." Jin Wei, general manager of Shanxi Yunzhong River Self-driving RV Camp, said, "The completion of the camp has greatly improved the quality of Yunzhong River scenic spot and set an example for the upgrading of Xinzhou tourism."

Jindao RV Camp is located in Xijing Village, Licheng County. It is a large comprehensive RV camp with large scale, high grade and complete services in Changzhi City. The camp has a large area of lush flowers, trees and fruit forests, with a pleasant environment, and is adjacent to the Hushan scenic spot, the Xier River scenic spot and the Huangya Cave scenic spot. It is a must for self-driving tourists.

"At present, Jindao RV campsite is deeply integrated with more cultural and tourism-related industries through the 'campsite+wine tourism industry' model, bringing market drainage to the campsite with rich tourism elements, injecting vitality into the campsite, and improving the comprehensive benefits," said Shi Wei, general manager of Jindao RV campsite.

Zou Qingling, CEO of Mommy Donkey Tourism Network, said that in recent years, the diversified product form of "camping+" has been popular with users. Camping+RV, camping+open-air concert, camping+travel photography, camping+stargazing and many other characteristic products allow tourists to truly reap good things in their journey.

Policy guidance,

Boost the healthy development of camping tourism

In recent years, China's camping industry has developed rapidly. The data shows that from 2014 to 2020, the market size of camping sites in China has increased from 7.71 billion yuan to 16.8 billion yuan. In 2021 under the epidemic situation, the market size of the campsite will increase instead of decreasing, with a growth rate of 78.0%, and the market size will reach 29.90 billion yuan.

In September 2020, in order to further improve the service quality of self-driving RV campsites and strengthen the supply of high-quality holiday leisure tourism products, the China Association of Tourism Vehicles and Boats carried out the first batch of "self-driving RV campsite classification work". Shanxi Yunzhonghe Self-driving RV Campground has successfully been rated as the National 5C Self-driving RV Campground, and is also the first 5C Self-driving RV Campground in our province.

It is gratifying that the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and other 14 departments jointly issued the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Healthy and orderly Development of Camping Tourism and Leisure (hereinafter referred to as the Opinions). The Opinions clearly put forward to promote the construction of public camps, expand the scale of public camps and improve the quality of services. Encourage and support the standardized construction of operational camps and improve the quality of camping products. To expand and strengthen the upstream and downstream industrial chain of camping tourism and leisure, and improve the overall efficiency of the whole industrial chain.

It is noteworthy that promoting the integrated development of culture and tourism is also reflected in the Opinions. Encourage and guide the camp to cooperate with relevant institutions such as cultural and museum, performing arts, fine arts, etc., and enrich the service content by combining music festivals, art festivals, sports competitions and other mass festivals and events. Culture is used to model tourism, and tourism is used to highlight culture, so that camping can not only bring physical and mental relaxation, but also enrich the spiritual and cultural life of tourists.

A number of people in the tourism industry said that the Opinions is not only to implement the requirements of the National Tourism and Leisure Development Outline (2022-2030) for tourism for the people, but also to play an active role in enriching the supply of high-quality camping and leisure products and promoting the healthy and orderly development of camping tourism.

Up to now, the number of campsites built, under construction and planned in our province has reached 41. Among them, 14 campsite projects have been completed and put into use.

We believe that in the near future, the completion and opening of a large number of camping projects will inject new vitality into the cultural and tourism industry of our province, and at the same time provide more rich consumer choices for tourists.