Caravanning in Europe

The dwif calculated a total of 367 million camping and caravanning overnight stays on around 26,000 campsites. These are purely tourist overnight stays, not including permanent campers. In this survey, France is the absolute leader with 109.7 million overnight stays, followed by Italy with 52.9 million and Great Britain with 50.2 million overnight stays.

Germany ranks fourth with 46.9 million overnight stays. The impressive figure of 367 million overnight stays exceeds the number of all overnight stays in all accommodation establishments and forms of accommodation in Germany in 2015. Expenditure for the 367 million overnight stays alone totals 3.4 billion euros. In addition, there are other tourist expenditures, such as catering, entertainment and cultural offerings, which amount to a total of 10.2 billion euros.

The total turnover resulting from overnight stays thus amounts to 13.6 billion euros. Tourism camping does not take place however exclusively on camping sites. Modern pitches, for example, are attracting more and more motor caravan tourists with an increasingly diverse range of offers. In addition, modern motor caravans have meanwhile such a high measure at independence that they are not dependent occasionally no more compellingly on the infrastructure of a camping site. Among other things, this results in a further 64 million overnight stays outside campsites.

An additional 48 million day trips without overnight stays round off the balance for caravanning tourism. Overnight stays outside campsites and day trips generate an additional turnover of 4.7 billion euros. In total, the turnover from camping and caravanning tourism in the 15 countries surveyed adds up to 18.3 billion euros.