Could there be opportunities for motorhome and caravan dealers when restrictions begin to be lifted?
Unsurprisingly, immediately after Lockdown, when caravan parks were closed for the foreseeable, audience to the leisure sections of Auto Trader saw a significant decline. At its worst point (during week commencing the 20th April), total sessions to Auto Trader Motorhomes was down 35% versus the same week last year, and Auto Trader Caravans was down 41%.
Following several weeks of consistent growth, the picture has improved somewhat and last week sessions were down just 17% on motorhome and 24% down on caravan versus this time last year. People viewing adverts has been relatively stable, a modest decline of c15% however sales enquiries are continuing to flood through despite showrooms being closed with over 1400 leads and 450 calls coming in to Auto Trader motorhome and caravan dealers weekly.
We recently ran a consumer poll on the site to understand purchase intent and 23% of browsers on the motorhome site are looking to purchase in the next three months, with this figure rising to 30% among caravan buyers signalling high interest in motorhomes and caravans as a way of holidaying while social distancing remains a key part of life.
The National Caravan Council’s Louise Wood talked to Auto Trader about recent research which the NCC undertook into consumers attitudes to holidays.
“We had some very revealing results,” Louise confirmed. “Sixty-four percent of consumers are likely to take trips in the UK in 2021, whereas pre-COVID just 38% claim to have been planning a UK holiday – a potentially significant shift towards staycationing.
“Of course, this does not necessarily mean that they will take a caravan/motorhome holiday and this ‘intent’ has yet to be converted! Right now, we are all thinking about social distancing and how we holiday going forward. Seventy percent of UK adults said they perceive a holiday caravan-based UK break as a more socially acceptable activity in our research. Motorhoming did even better, with 77%, indicating its acceptability as a post lockdown activity and that is really good news.
“We are hoping we can persuade Government that touring caravan and motorhome dealerships should be allowed to open when the lock down is eased, seeing as most of them are outdoors and the vehicles are usually set a safe distance apart.
If that happens, we will hopefully see a big spike in interest in buying tourers, campers and motorhomes.”
Dave Murden at Oaktree Motorhomes is also optimistic about the future of the leisure industry. “People will be keen to stay in the UK and unlike a cottage or a B&B, a holiday in a motorhome is not an unknown. All the facilities you need are within the van so everything is predictable and gives people a bit of certainty. Other types of UK holidays are likely to increase in price, I think they have to if occupancy rates can’t be quite so high and rooms need vacancy time between guests. A motorhome will begin to look more cost-effective than ever before.
“The enquiries I’ve had throughout Lockdown have been from savvy buyers thinking that if British tourism booms over the coming weeks, they want to get ahead of any potential price rises”.
In advance of restrictions being lifted, Dave has been preparing his motorhomes to get ahead for what he believes will be a busy time over the coming weeks. “We did a service on every van before lockdown as preparation, so everything is good to go – it used to be between 7 and 10 days before we could deliver a van – now it’s potentially 24-48 hours.
“We’re also gearing up for making sure people feel confident visiting us once we’re allowed to re-open – having less staff in, viewing by appointment only, using our ozone generator to sanitise the motorhomes are just a few of the things we’re doing.”
Another interesting find over recent weeks has been the shift in demographics of those browsing on Auto Trader, with an increase in younger buyers. On both the motorhome and caravan sites, the percentage of browsers over the age of 55 have decreased. On motorhome, we’ve seen an increase in buyers aged between 25-44 and on caravan an increase in buyers aged between 18-34.
John Hardman from Global Caravans has noticed a similar trend. “I’ve never known business as busy as we have been since Lockdown. At first we were inundated with enquiries from NHS workers looking for a caravan as a way of self-isolating, and now we’re seeing an increase in buyers who have never owned a caravan before looking for a new way to holiday, particularly younger couples.”
There is obviously lots of uncertainty over how and when restrictions will be lifted and it’s still of utmost importance to continue following government advice about operating within the current restrictions. However these positive trends are reassuring for an industry that has been hit hard right at the start of a traditional peak season and gives me great confidence we’ll see the opportunity for growth over the rest of the year.