More than a picnic, more than a tent
Low-key, connotative, high-value, camping out of the circle
At the seaside, in the grass, and in the forest, set up sky curtains and tents in the color of the earth, play games and read books in the sun during the day, cook around the fireplace in the evening, and light up warm yellow string lights to chat with relatives and friends after dark.
On the best show provided by nature, good food, exquisite utensils, and friendly partners create a comfortable and comfortable camping experience.
As if overnight, camping has become one of the most popular items for couples dating, parent-child travel, and friends gathering.
Even if you have never experienced it, you must have paid attention to it in other forms: social media friends dynamics, lifestyle self-media tweets, hot search lists of major online platforms, offline shopping malls or e-commerce platform marketing · ･･･
Camping is sweeping like a wave, and those who are not involved may not be able to hold back their inner questions: what kind of experience is camping?
What kind of person likes camping?
Why do they like camping?
What makes camping "out of the circle" quickly?
popular science
This exquisite camping
Not "camping"
Camping as a short-term outdoor lifestyle, carrying a tent and camping outside the city for a few days is perhaps the simplest explanation for it.
From the perspective of outdoor sports enthusiasts, the early popular camping method in China is a arduous and rough experience. Backpacking and exploring in the wild, a series of factors such as physical energy consumption, changing climate, and complex environment make the journey full of challenges.
The current popular camping method is more called "exquisite camping", which is a resort-style camping method that pursues more comfort, elegance and high value.
"Exquisite camping" is translated from the English word "Glamping", which is a combination of "Glamorous" (attractive, unique) and "Camping" (camping). It has been translated as wild luxury camping, style camping, etc. .
The word "Glamping" first appeared in the UK in 2005 and was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2016.
Although the term has been around for less than 20 years, the way of life it represents can be traced back to the 16th century European aristocratic outings and the 20th century African hunting of wealthy Europeans, bringing luxury tents, folding bathtubs, generators, champagne and other items , enjoy the comforts of home while seeking nature and adventure.
In November 2018, outdoor enthusiasts from Hangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou and other places gathered in Hangzhou. The Danish white bear white tent and the utensils purchased from all over the world set the tone of this camping conference, which is also known as "domestic" Exquisite Camping" enlightenment.
Big data tells you
how hot is it
The boom in the camping economy can be seen in data from travel platforms, social media, corporate information and more.
According to the "2022 May 1 Holiday Travel Report" released by Ctrip, on the first day of the holiday, the popularity of "camping" on the platform reached a historical peak, and the search popularity increased by 90% from last week.
During the May 1st period, the number of related hotels and homestays with the label of "camping" on the Ctrip platform increased by 153% compared with the Qingming holiday.
From the second half of 2021 to April this year, the number of camping products on the Ctrip platform has grown nearly 10 times.
According to the big data of Tongcheng Travel, during the May Day holiday in 2022, the popularity of "camping" related travel searches increased by 117% month-on-month.
Forest camping, island camping, park camping, starry sky camping and parent-child camping have become the most popular camping themes.
On Xiaohongshu, there are more than 3.55 million camping-related notes.
Recently, the platform has also launched the "camping season" special event, which divides the notes of 20 outdoor bloggers into novice guides, equipment selection guides, food recommendations, camp building skills, and play manual display, and invites users to post notes to win 10,000 yuan. Dollar prizes.
According to Tianyancha information, there are currently about 50,000 camping-related companies in my country, of which more than 20,000 were established within the past year, and nearly 10,000 have been established since January this year.
At the same time, the business of outdoor sports brands is also developing rapidly.
Taking Mu Gao Di, which is mainly engaged in tent business, as an example, its revenue in the first quarter of this year has reached 327 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 56%.
Since the beginning of April, the stock price of Mugaodi has risen by more than 130%, and the market value has increased by more than 3 billion yuan.
Players tell
Can be both "bad" and "fun"
The camping experience displayed through the Internet is like a dreamy and romantic movie.
For the participants, the actual feelings were much more complicated.
In May 2021, Chen Jing, who works in an outdoor company in Hangzhou, went to camp at Songlin Lake in Anji, Zhejiang, at the invitation of her colleagues.
Previously, she knew nothing about camping and got into the outdoor company by accident.
The weather was fine when we first went out, but when we arrived at our destination, we found that heavy rain was coming.
The sultry weather and the evaporation of water vapor in the woods made her feel as if she was living in a huge steamer.
She didn't understand why they gave up the fresh air to feel the sweltering heat.
Affected by the rain, they had to dry the cotton canopy to avoid mold before leaving, and it took several hours to pack the tent and equipment.
Chen Jing's feelings about this camping seemed a bit contradictory. She also used "bad" and "fun" to describe the experience.
What initially surprised her was the food.
In her expectation, the outdoor life will be done with convenience foods. Unexpectedly, the fellow outdoor players brought Haidilao bottom ingredients and cleaned vegetables, and made claypot rice and grilled lamb chops on the spot. Cold cola, and along with the mutual work in the field work, the originally unfamiliar colleagues also began to get acquainted.
Four months later, she and a few friends set off for camping in Taizhou.
They chose a sparsely populated mountain village and set up camp by the lake.
At about seven o'clock the next morning, when she wrapped in a down jacket and planned to walk to the toilet in the distance, the scene in front of her made her feel like a fairyland: the smooth lake reflected the dark green mountains and forests, and the mountains and the lake were misty.
"At that moment I felt it was a worthwhile trip."
Through social media, Chen Jing found that camping suddenly seemed to attract everyone's attention.
High school classmates, college classmates, those who were originally far away from the outdoor circle have all joined the "camping team".
Although she is not a senior outdoor player, she still occasionally finds traces of one-stop punch-in in those photos. If she doesn't even have stoves and other equipment, it is difficult to talk about "camping".
"The biggest criterion for selecting equipment is appearance"
Equipment, to some extent, exposes one's outdoor level.
Outdoor enthusiasts divide camping equipment into kitchen systems, sleeping systems, and living room systems.
Canopies, egg roll tables, stoves, gas tanks, incubators, stoves, etc. belong to the kitchen system, while tents, beds, sleeping bags, and pillows belong to the sleep system.
Pan Yunqian from Zhuhai, Guangdong was a traditional camping player in the early days, and began to try exquisite camping in 2020.
He and his friends spent more than 20,000 yuan on the equipment for the first time.
When choosing equipment, their biggest criterion is appearance.
After repeated selections, they uniformly chose earth-colored equipment.
"I think in the concept of 'exquisite camping', appearance is very important. Players' attitudes must be refined and equipment must be refined." Pan Yungan said that their spending at that time was considered mid-to-high-end for entry-level players. Several iterations were performed.
Among his many camping experiences, the most impressive one is a friendship exchange in Zhangjiakou, Hebei in 2021.
In order to participate in the camping, a group of four of them flew from Zhuhai to Zhangjiakou, and sent more than 200 kilograms of equipment to the local area by express.
To make sure a friend's 5-year-old daughter sleeps comfortably, they brought three layers of mattresses with different functions: the bottom layer to keep out moisture, the middle one is an air cushion, and the top layer is "cheese", filled with sponge.
What really attracted the "onlookers" were the six or seven Cantonese dim sum steamers, which made the campers who lived next door sighed: "Delicious food!"
In the same camp, see other campers using the same or different equipment, and you can come forward to communicate.
Pan Yunqian understands this as a kind of cultural exchange, where people from different regions and styles can appreciate and collide with each other.
He also has his own observations on the level of facilities in the camp.
He said that a newly opened camp in Huizhou, Guangdong has relatively complete supporting services. Even in the wild, the camp toilets are free of small insects and odors. The shower room is spacious and bright, and has complete heating and cooling equipment.
Urban women's life aesthetics and adults' "playing home"
"Everyone needs a place to release the pressure in their work and life." While playing camping, Pan Yungan, a father of three children, and a friend of a father of two began to operate the outdoor self-media account "Dad Loves Camping".
He found that families with a certain material foundation are important consumer groups for camping. They have the need to go out with their families and are willing to invest time and experience in research. Most importantly, they have the economic strength to buy equipment.
The number of fans on each platform account also "doubles every festival". During the May Day period alone, the growth of fans on a single platform was only tens of thousands.
Pan Yunqian also found that many urban women's life aesthetics that cannot be achieved at work are displayed in camping.
They work in a first-tier city and are temporarily unable to buy a house, but they can create a space of their own at a lower cost outdoors, where they can place delicate objects, pick some weeds and flowers, put on music, light agarwood, and grind some coffee. .
Putting on the functional vest, they can present a more different version of themselves.
"Many girls are really addicted, and their aesthetics and pursuits have been sublimated in this environment."
Pan Yunqian once offered to take his parents to camp, but he was rejected unexpectedly.
My father said that when I was a child, I went to the fields to catch mice every day. What's the fun in that?
He realized that camping as a way of travel is mainly full of novelties in the eyes of the post-80s, post-90s and post-00s.
"I think camping is about getting close to nature, enjoying delicious food, and having fun. It is the pursuit and yearning of modern people for a better life."
His observations coincide with some conclusions in the "2022 Camping Quality Research Report" released by Mafengwo.
The portraits of campers provided by Mafengwo show that first-tier and new-tier urbanites are the main customers for camping, and Beijing, Chengdu, Shanghai, and Guangzhou are the top four sources of camping consumers.
Among the camping consumers in 2021, women will be the main decision-makers, accounting for 64%. In terms of gender and age distribution of consumers, the post-90s and post-00s young tourists who love nature and follow the trend and the post-80s who value children's experiential education Become the two major "main forces" in the camping circle.
"Actually, exquisite camping is an adult's home. It is very tedious but also very enjoyable. The process of preparation and cleaning is troublesome, but doing something when you are in it is like returning to your childhood, which is very healing." Said by netizens He Liyu, who is "Second Uncle", sees camping more as a short break that men seek under pressure.
He said that the moment the bonfire was lit, the whole world was silent.
Although I have participated in countless camps and lit countless bonfires, the feeling of lighting a bonfire is still different each time.
At that time, he often didn't even need to chat, just being in a daze made him feel good.
He recalled that, by the Pine Forest Lake, they finally lit the wet pine branches, and heard them crackling and crackling as they burned. Looking at the calm lake and the dripping lights on the other side, he read a sentence written by a friend: "The moment the flames flashed, I was completely pulled away, as if I had entered a pure world, only myself, only boundless peace and joy."
Observed
Why do you love camping?
nature, epidemic, vision
No matter what kind of camping, in the final analysis, there is a core - that is the yearning of urban people for nature.
According to their own conditions and needs, they returned to nature in different ways and created their own lives elsewhere.
As for the advocacy of nature by urban populations with certain spending power, Swedish ethnology scholars Ovi Lofgren and Jonathan Fleckman once gave the answer in the book "The Good Life: The Life History of the Middle Class".
The concept of nature of the middle class presents a cultural contradiction. On the one hand, they hate the "natural way", but on the other hand, they are eager and infatuated with "natural life". Those scenic spots have become a good way to prevent the over-civilization of human beings.
Talking about why camping is rapidly sweeping first-tier cities, different players often give the same answer: nature, epidemic, vision.
In the high-density, fast-paced modern life dominated by rules and rationality, urbanites who are physically and mentally exhausted need an outlet.
Nature is the best place to rest and heal all wounds.
In the past two years, the epidemic has affected the previously fashionable outbound travel, inter-provincial travel and other mobility methods, and exquisite camping has become an alternative experience that combines comfort and novelty.
In the cyclical anxiety and changes of urbanites, people are increasingly craving for nature and authenticity.
On the other hand, with the advent of the visual age, pictures and videos have become convenient tools for recording the present and rapid dissemination, and further generating the meaning of tourism.
Professor Zhou Xian of Nanjing University previously stated in the article "Modernity and the Tourist Gaze in Visual Culture" that in modern urban space, individualized life is limited, sensibility is suppressed, and pressure from all sides makes people from time to time break through modernization. Cage adventurous impulses.
The "deviation" and "aesthetic" characteristics of tourism just provide a way to escape temporarily, allowing people to temporarily leave the daily life controlled by rational principles and turn to the pleasure of a perceptual experience.
Photos play an important role as a testament to the tour.
After the event, the photos remain, and the photos immortalize the experience.
Text / Newspaper reporter Chen Jing
Coordinator/Chi Haibo