Waldbreitbach.
Fall asleep with a view of the starry sky, wake up in nature, have breakfast outside: the camping season really gets going in May. Seats are well booked. Some even want to stay longer.
The May holidays are just around the corner, and of course the operators of campsites are also hoping for good weather. Now the season should really start, there are no longer corona restrictions, it’s time to breathe a sigh of relief.
Accordingly, Christiane Kalteis looks relaxed and optimistic Camping Wiedhof in Waldbreitbach in the Westerwald for the coming days. Despite the not yet ideal weather, the Wiedhof and the Wiedschleife campsite were already well attended around Easter. Everything is already fully booked for the upcoming public holidays in May, but a place for a camper can often be found spontaneously.
Trend holiday camping
“People are happy and grateful that things are starting again and everything is possible without a mask,” says Kalteis. So far, no one has complained about excessive fuel or electricity prices. Kalteis, who runs two campsites, a restaurant and a holiday home with her husband, says that they have not increased the prices for tourist overnight stays. So they wanted to ensure good utilization throughout the summer.
In general, camping in all its forms is booming. That has around 509,000 camping guests State Statistical Office Counted in Rhineland-Palatinate in 2002. In 2022, with around 990,000 guests, there will be almost twice as many. Last year there were 3,008,628 overnight stays in designated areas with ten or more parking spaces in the state.
The demand is consistently high, confirms Heinrich Lang, Managing Director of the Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland Camping Industry Association. Both the green field and the five-star superior campsite are increasingly in demand. “We are experiencing a very strong differentiation in prices for overnight stays,” explains Lang. Depending on the equipment of the campsite, the range is between 10 and over 50 euros for two adults with a vehicle.
Target group wants to be in nature and have a social life
It doesn’t always have to be the big motorhome, especially for the younger campers. Kalteis is increasingly seeing smaller buses that can also be used on a day-to-day basis. The bestseller for all age groups, however, is the free, green meadow with electricity and water, without plots that precisely determine who has to stand or camp where. The visitors also appreciated well-developed, clean sanitary facilities. “Our target group wants to go out into nature and meet up with others,” Kalteis knows.
Wine lovers among the campers have that Weinhaus Geiger in view. There is space for up to 30 mobile homes on a terraced site behind the winery in Dierbach, southern Palatinate. Bread roll service, supply and disposal, use of electricity and sanitary facilities as well as WiFi included. “Our parking space is mainly visited on the weekends and on public holidays,” reports senior manager Helga Geiger. Then the wine bar of the winery was also open. Many guests come from the surrounding area.
They are also the ones who often stay at one location for more than a few nights, observes Lang: “There is a tendency towards long-term camping.” Usually the places of origin of the long-term campers are about an hour and a half away from the respective campsite. Because of the proximity, many also come to Rhineland-Palatinate from Belgium, the Netherlands or Luxembourg.
The cliché of the permanent camper is becoming less
In terms of tax law, one speaks of long-term camping if the rental contract runs for more than 180 days. On the Kalteis site, for example, there are campers who spend a few months of the year in the holiday home, even in winter. Most of these are pensioners, says Kalteis.
According to Lang, on the other hand, permanent campers are getting younger and younger. “Young families are increasingly discovering this as a cheap solution to the problem for weekends and short vacations, at least during a certain family phase.” Staying in one location for 30, 40 years like with the “old” permanent campers, which you might still think of as a cliché head, that doesn’t exist anymore these days. Especially since permanent living with a main residence on campsites is controversial.
However: The number of permanent camping sites in Rhineland-Palatinate cannot be specified exactly, as Lang explains, and it is also not recorded by the State Statistical Office. However, it is stagnating to declining, according to Lang. “That’s because tourist camping is usually much more lucrative.” Due to the strong demand, permanent campsites that become vacant are often offered to tourists.
The houses of long-term campers, such as those at Camping Wiedhof, are traded at a correspondingly high price. According to Christiane Kalteis, the maximum 50 square meter complexes – caravans encapsulated in a solid housing, lovingly maintained wooden houses and even small brick houses – are usually sold to successors for 5,000 to over 70,000 euros, depending on the equipment. (dpa)
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