2024 a very good year for camping, positive outlook for 2025
More overnight stays, more new motorhome registrations: 2024 was a very good year for the camping industry. PiNCAMP, the camping company of ADAC, ANWB and TCS, was also able to increase the number of bookings by 28%. With 14 million visitors to PiNCAMP and anwbcamping.nl. PiNCAMP has thus established itself as one of the largest camping portals in Europe.
While the Ukraine conflict and the challenges facing the automotive industry are currently dampening economic growth, the ‘camping’ tourism segment continues to shine with solid growth figures. In July and August, the number of overnight stays at campsites in Germany rose by 4% year-on-year to a new record level. New motorhome registrations in Germany up to October have risen by 11% compared to the previous year. PiNCAMP, the camping company of ADAC, ANWB and TCS, can even report growth of 28% in generated bookings in 2024 compared to the previous year. PiNCAMP generated the most bookings for the destination France, followed by Croatia, Italy and Germany. PiNCAMP achieved the highest growth in bookings in Austria, followed by Switzerland, the Netherlands, Italy and Germany.
PiNCAMP CEO Uwe Frers also expects a positive trend for 2025: ‘The interest in camping is unbroken, PiNCAMP is recording exceptionally strong growth in early bookings for 2025.’ According to the ‘Focus Caravaning’ study supported by PiNCAMP, campers are planning shorter but more camping trips in 2025, meaning that the total number of overnight stays at campsites could rise again in 2025.
Joint venture: internationalisation
In January 2024, the three mobility clubs ADAC (Germany), ANWB (Netherlands) and TCS (Switzerland) merged their camping activities in the joint venture PiNCAMP. The declared aim was to accelerate internationalisation. In May 2024, PiNCAMP took over the operation of the anwbcamping.nl portal in the Netherlands. In addition to the existing PiNCAMP.ch offering in Switzerland, three further language versions of PiNCAMP will be launched in Italian, French and English at the end of the year. Uwe Frers: ‘With the launch of three more country portals, we are now offering campers in the most important camping nations in Europe access to the best holiday destinations. At the same time, we are significantly increasing the visibility of PiNCAMP’s campsite partners.’
New app: launch in the Netherlands
PiNCAMP will launch the new ANWB Camping App in the Netherlands at the beginning of 2025, followed by the launch of the PiNCAMP App in Germany in the third quarter of 2025. The new camping apps will make the high-quality camping information and the range of campsites that can be booked online even easier to use for users of mobile devices.
Uwe Frers: ‘2024 was a successful year for camping. We would like to thank our partners from the camping industry throughout Europe for the dialogue at eye level, the many suggestions and the great cooperation. We wish our partners a successful 2025 season.’
