The European caravan market

According to figures reported by ECF members, along with information from national statistics and licensing offi ces, the number of new caravan registrations in Europe totalled 81,010 in 2011. This represents a decline of 1.3 percent as compared to 2010 (82,080 units). During the course of the year, solely the second quarter of 2011 achieved marginal growth in registrations at 0.7 percent as compared to the previous year. The remaining quarters experienced declines between 1.9 percent and 3.1 percent. At 51,000 newly registered caravans, the fi rst half of 2011 was almost at the level of the previous year, while the second half of the year already experienced a decline of 4 percent. Since 2007, sales in the European caravan market have decreased by 31 percent from 117,800 to 81,010 in 2011.

A lack of activity in 2011 was also noted for important caravan markets such as the UK (– 7.9 percent) or the Netherlands (– 4.3 percent). In addition, the Spanish market almost completely disappeared, and the Danish market is also still ailing. Unfortunately, important growth markets such as Germany and France were not able to compensate for these losses in 2011, making an overall decline inevitable.