Camping business looking forward to enhanced supportive policies

As China's recreational vehicle market is buoyed by the growing van life culture, RV vendors are expected to cooperate with the government to step up campsite construction, allowing RV enthusiasts to enjoy more convenient getaways, experts said.

By 2020, there were about 1,900 RV campsites in China, mainly distributed in eastern, northern and southwestern regions, according to huaon.com, an information consulting platform.

The country's leading RV provider Maxus currently has over 30 RV campsites, among which the largest is in Liyang, Jiangsu province. The site is segmented into several zones with varying functions to offer high-quality services, said a company representative.

"We cooperate with over 30 certified campgrounds in popular resort regions like North China, the Yangtze River Delta and Hainan province, all of which offer water and electricity supply and other services. RV campers can search for nearby campsites online by using our WeChat mini-program," the representative said.

Policies supporting the industry are included in the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) and the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), both of which call for building more campgrounds, with the latter further pointing out the need to create an overall tourism industry chain centered on RVs.

Amid such a supportive backdrop, there were about 21,000 campsite-related companies in operation as of May 2021, with 6,941 newly registered in the first half of 2021 alone, up 286.5 percent year-on-year, said business registration tracker Qichacha.

Localities are making efforts as well. Hainan province, a renowned tourist destination, had about 70 RV campsites by May 2021. It also issued an overall plan for tourism development (2017-30) that underscored the importance of establishing RV campsites, planning RV road trips and building eco-friendly international-standard motels and RV camping bases, according to Economic Information Daily.

Maxus noted, however, that more efforts should be made to address the waste of resources caused by underused campgrounds and incomplete infrastructure.

"We need to integrate RV campsites with the peripherals of self-driving tours. Centered on the RV, this combination can add more fun to camping while facilitating communication among RV manufacturers, users and dealers to share information and increase the utilization rate of campsites," the representative added.

Kaifusai Julaiti contributed to this story.