NO “OVER”, YES “MINIMAL”! CAMP AND CARAVAN TOURISM
Yasin Bilim * & Özgür Özer **
_________________________________________________________________________________________Abstract
Last developments show that over-population, modern life and physical or mental health problems have steered the people to nature and isolated areas. It will be understood that camp and caravan tourism offers exciting experiences which demonstrate the value of the nature gives the chance to learn living with limited minimal conditions and especially provide secure tourism activities alternatively to current Covid-19 pandemic period negative tourism developments. The study aims to show how camp and caravan tourism can be an alternative for modern people insisting on sustainable and healthy tourism activities with social distance and isolated living instead of huge hedonic, unnecessary, luxury consumption and crowd living spaces. The study has constructed on a theoretical approach based on literature review and to support the theories web-based observational and hermeneutic analysis have been hold. Some potential geographies like Latin America and Europe have been selected to explain the contribution of camp and caravan tourism.
Key words: Camp and Caravan Tourism; Sustainability; Environmental Sensitivity; Covid-19 Pandemic.
NADA DE "ACABOU", mas SIM "MÍNIMO"! TURISMO DE CAMPISMO E CARAVANAS
_________________________________________________________________________________________Resumo
Os últimos acontecimentos mostram que o excesso de população, a vida moderna e os problemas de saúde física ou mental levaram as pessoas para a natureza e áreas isoladas. Assumimos o entendimento de que o turismo de campismo e caravanas oferece experiências emocionantes que demonstram o valor da natureza dá a chance de aprender a viver com condições mínimas limitadas e, especialmente, fornecer atividades turísticas seguras, em alternativa ao desenvolvimento turístico negativo do atual período de pandemia Covid-19. O estudo tem como objetivo mostrar como o turismo de campismo e de caravanas pode ser uma boa alternativa para as pessoas modernas insistindo em atividades de turismo sustentável e saudável, com distância social e vida isolada, em vez de enormes espaços hedônicos, desnecessários, de convívio e de consumo de luxo. O estudo foi construído a partir de uma abordagem teórica baseada na revisão da literatura e para apoiar as teorias de observação e análise hermenêutica baseadas na web. Algumas regiões geográficas potenciais, tais como a América Latina e a Europa, foram selecionadas, a título de exemplificação, para explicar a contribuição do Turismo de campismo e caravanas. De acordo com os resultados, o turismo de campismo e de caravanas fornece lógicas sustentáveis comparativamente e parece ser a melhor alternativa para o bloqueio pandêmico atual.
Palavras-chave: Turismo de Caravana e Acampamento; Sustentabilidade; Sensibilidade ambiental; Covid-19 pandemia.
PAS DE "OVER", OUI "MINIMAL" ! TOURISME de CAMP ET CARAVANE
________________________________________________________________________________________Résumé
Les derniers développements montrent que la surpopulation, la vie moderne et les problèmes de santé physique ou mentale ont conduit les gens vers la nature et les zones isolées. On comprendra que le tourisme de camp et de caravane offre des expériences passionnantes qui démontrent la valeur de la nature donne la chance d'apprendre à vivre avec des conditions minimales limitées et surtout de fournir des activités touristiques sécurisées alternativement aux développements touristiques négatifs actuels de la période de pandémie de Covid-19. L'étude vise à montrer comment le tourisme de camp et de caravane est une bonne alternative pour les gens modernes insistant sur des activités touristiques durables et saines avec une distance sociale et une vie isolée au lieu d'énormes espaces de consommation de luxe hédoniques, inutiles et de vie de foule. Ainsi, l'étude suggérera quelques points stratégiques sur le tourisme sûr et durable en soulignant l'importance du tourisme de camp et de caravane par quelques aperçus régionaux L'étude a construit sur une approche théorique basée sur la revue de la littérature et pour soutenir les théories de l'analyse observationnelle et herméneutique basée sur le Web ont été tenir. Certaines géographies potentielles comme l'Amérique latine et l'Europe ont été sélectionnées pour expliquer la contribution du tourisme de camp et de caravane.
Mots clés: Tourisme de camp et caravane; Durabilité; Sensibilité environnementale; Pandémie de Covid-19.
1 INTRODUCTION
Modern life offers many facilities and easy life conditions with technologic developments. On the other hand, despite positive sides of modernism, human nature needs to touch natural beauties escaping from the modern, sultry and crowd places.
Camp and caravan tourism (C&CT) is one movement which fulfill the gap between modern life and nature. Campers go camping because they want to escape their routine band monotonous life (Ned, 2006). However, campers and outdoor enthusiasts like caravan users “want to escape from others and crowds, but on the other hand, they do so in a personally defined, small social circle” (Iso-Ahola, 1983, p. 48).
Based on different sources, Mikulic, Prebezac, Seric and Kresic (2017; 226), defines camping tourism broadly as a form of nature-based special interest tourism. It is fundamentally determined by the flexible, temporary and mobile nature of its accommodation facilities (such as e.g. tents, recreational vehicles (RVs), mobile homes etc.) and by its inseparable relationship with the natural environment. With this definition, it can be said that caravanning is also evaluated together with camping tourism as a kind of recreational vehicle or mobile home.
As mentioned before, camping, caravanning and related tourism trends are generally well-known outdoor activities which take in natural settings and use natural sources. So, these all are also related to environmental sense. Anderson (1979) adds also related themes to camping like education, physical training and aesthetic purposes.
Against the latest consumption discussions on luxury and over tourism concepts, camp and caravan tourism trends offer more sustainable touristic production and consumptions because nature is the core product of these kinds of tourism (Milohnic & Bonifacic, 2014). This can be quite usefull to the current pandemic context.
Some researches emphasize that Campers and Recreational Vehicle (RVs) users have a strong sensitivity and responsibility for the environments and local societies they visit (Gretzel, Simic, Wright & Hardy, 2008; Holloway, Green, & Holloway, 2011). However, others (as Caldicott, Scherrer & Jenkins, 2014; Marion & Farrell, 2002) point out that free campers and adventure tourists can disturb nature and cause environmental negative impacts. But this is not associated with overpopulation caused by tourist movements.
Implying the discussions about social distance and travel restraints, some researchers (Şengel, Genç, Işkın, Ulema & Uzut, 2020) point out that camp and caravan tourism is one of the best choice for travel with social distance and offers a current solution about living with pandemic and similar conditions as an isolated choice.
Maybe sustainability is one of the main direction for camp and caravan tourism, but current pandemic conditions have caused to re-thinking on nature based tourism activities instead of human interaction intensive tourism types.
As it has been mentioned firstly, camp and caravan tourism is a private selection for escaping from the crowd. According to arising discussions about the future of tourism because of pandemic, camp and caravan tourism can be seen as a current and probably one of the rare alternative because some reports and experts advocate that despite decreasing popularity of many tourism types, demands to camp and caravan tourism have burst in this periods and sells have been increased nearly all over the world.
Although camp and caravan tourism have been an important part of tourism industry, the attention of tourism and hospitality researchers has been generally low (Miholic et al., 2017). Despite the low attention in academic researches, camp and caravan tourism has taken on the eyes in tourism industry recently because of pandemic effects.
So, the study has tried to evaluate two different perspectives of the camp and caravan tourism; first is about sustainability as an alternative to decrease the negative impact of tourism on overpopulation and to demonstrate environmental sense by consuming less and second is about growing demand on camp and caravan tourism in covid-19 pandemic period which has defined as the worst period of tourism industry ever.
Comparing with the luxury or standard consumption propensity of tourists, camp and caravan tourists are defined minimal consumers because all part of travel and holiday needs of them are very strict and more functional – utilitarian based on novelty seeking motivation rather than hedonic based motivations.
In this manner, camp and caravan tourists clamp down to environmental issues. Dunlap and Heffernan (1975) explain that discussing on environmental care, camping is an appreciative recreational activity tending to low consumption. Based on these explanations, camp and caravan travels are also referred as minimal life with limited accommodation and production conditions and without average standards of homes or hotels (International Travel House, 2017; Caldicott et al., 2014).
On the other hand, because of covid-19 pandemic currently, nature based, open air and free camping travels have been very popular and attractive. Current developments and health issues all over the world have pushed the people to natural areas. Thus, it can be said that camp and caravan tourism have been the most important alternative for many people to escape the under-populated areas.
It also means a chance for people to understand the importance and value of the nature. Looking at the different aspects, camp and caravan tourism has a growing attention associated with pandemic developments and recently it has been one of the most valuable sustainable tourism movement despite being oldest recreational and nature based activities (Gursoy & Chen, 2012; Şengel et al., 2020).
2 CAMPING, CARAVANNING AND PROFILING THE CAMP AND CARAVAN TOURISM
Camping is one of the outdoor activities people have been doing since ancient times. It can be defined as recreation activity. In content, it means flexible, mobile, accommodation in touch with nature, escaping from the environment that is constantly lived for a certain period of time and meeting with natural life.
In addition to being a recreational activity, camping is also described as a nature-based travel or tourism activity - tendency – movement (Mikulic et al., 2017; Hewer, Scott & Gough, 2015). According to Gürsoy and Chen's (2012) quote from Anderson (1979), camping is an educational and recreational activity based on ancient Greek, physical training or studies of the Spartans, and Athenians camp activities in the natural area for social and aesthetic purposes.
According to Brooker and Joppe (2013), camp is a concept that has different meanings in the minds of different people. For a family, it is a permanent escape, a family holiday, an inexpensive accommodation, a lifestyle for a caravan user or lover.
It is a freedom movement that includes cheaper accommodation compared to a hotel, being in a free environment where you can bring your own food and beverage, cook as you wish, take fresh air, watch the stars in the sky and enjoy nature. In this context, camping is an outdoor recreation form with a piece of activity and a piece of accommodation (Brooker & Joppe, 2013).
According to the assessment of the profile of camp or camping activities, camping is done using tools such as tents, caravans, motor homes (recreational vehicles). While Albayrak (2013) expresses camping as a recreational activity, it states that these activities can be in the form of fishing, outdoor cooking, hiking, hunting, swimming, wildlife research and photography (Mikulic et al., 2017; Albayrak, 2013).
While evaluating camp and outdoor accommodation according to duration and shape, Brooker and Joppe (2013) distinguished the activities as “permanent, long-term and short-term”, and made different definitions with subtitles; (i) permanent: those who live a camp life without a home and by traveling in vehicles caravan, etc. (ii) long-term: those who travel to the hot regions during the winter months (gray nomads) and similar seasonal campers (winter snowbirds, summer holidaymakers).
In these definitions, "tent campers" are among themselves, festivals, etc. the participants are adventurous and those who are in nature for sports and excitement, traditional campers (those who like to be in the open area by lighting the camp fire and making their own food) are explained.
In a distinction made according to the place where the camp is made, it is expressed as "backcountry" and "campground" camping (Gürsoy & Chen, 2012). Backcountry camping, a more mobile camping is expressed with more meeting with nature and scarce resources, campground camping is a specially organized camping that offers campers some facilities (electricity, water, sink ...). Camping has become widespread among North America, Europeans (especially Norway in Northern European regions), Australians, New Zealanders, and among the Chinese and Indians in recent years.
However, in the evaluation of the camp sites, it is stated that there are 28,400 camp sites in the European Union countries as of 2017, 28% of these camp sites are in France, 17% are in the UK and 10% are in Germany and the Netherlands.
Another assessment regarding the camping profile, it is emphasized that those who participate in camping activities in North America are mostly young men, income level is above average and highly educated, and families are mostly involved in camping with their children under 12 years of age (Eurostat, 2019).
One of the latest report on Worldwide Camping Index (2021) has ranked the best destinations around the world for exploring the countryside and camping in the wilderness, based on a detailed analysis of factors including stargazing, scenery, diversity of wildlife and the risk of natural disasters.
According to this index, Canada has been found the best camping destination in the world due to its high potential for stargazing, number of national parks, low pollution, low risk of natural disasters and beautiful scenery. USA, Australia and Norway have been also placed in top list.
Alternatively, some destinations rated highly include Brazil, which scored well for its vibrant wildlife biodiversity, number of national parks, forest area, natural resources and opportunity for stargazing. Except North America and Europe, some Latin American states have been ranked in top places attractively like Argentina, Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru with Brazil.
Caravan (caravan trailer), moto-caravan (walking house) or camper caravan (small caravan), the concept expressed in some values as a recreational vehicle, is not only a form of accommodation or transportation, but a free life where people fulfill their travel according to their wishes. It appears as a vehicle that allows its style.
Although caravan life of RV users, which is also referred to as minimal life, is not in the comfort of home, it has a more comfortable use compared to tent and camping facilities and limited use compared to accommodation facilities such as hotels and motels (International Travel House, 2017; Caldicott et al., 2014).
Patterson, Pegg and Litster (2011) explain the motivations of caravan users as an adventure to explore new cities and places, to enjoy the warmer weather, to be pleased with the beautiful scenery, to learn history, to meet new people and to be free to do whatever they want. However, people are struggling to realize themselves by dealing with physical difficulties in caravan travel.
In terms of both motivational and experience aspects, RV - caravanning is very similar to camping activities, while differences in caravan life are observed in terms of being mobile and having some home facilities (toilet, water, kitchen, bed).
Caravanning and camping are two different life styles, travel, adventure or meeting with nature that have a natural relationship with each other. In a review, while camping is used as a general expression, the use of caravans and recreational mobile vehicles is also included in this trend.
The most important reasons for this association are, of course, that both concepts have common motivational aspects (for example, free life in the open space), using similar products and materials. Historical backgrounds and common geographies, participant profiles are other dimensions of the relationship in this context (Caldicott et all., 2014).
The main reason for the similarity or unity is that the camping areas, which are generally widespread all over the world, are used intensely by not only tent-style campers but also caravans. In this context, it is seen that both concepts are often handled together in scientific studies, and caravan and caravan parks are also included in the subject especially in camping studies (Mikulic et al., 2017; Caldicott et al., 2014; Østby, 2013; Foley & Hayllar, 2007).
Camping areas have an important place in the evaluation, because campgrounds are modern areas that are structured according to the needs of campers and RVers, both natural - outdoor living spaces and general needs for people away from home. While the widespread use of rural areas is seen, it can be stated that the camping areas have developed in the holiday areas at the seaside recently (Mikulic et al., 2017). But Brooker and Joppe (2013) imply that in many cases wilderness settings of a camping destination is the unique pull factor.
According to another research direction, wild life is one of the most important factor for the ideal camping activities (Mikulic et al., 2017). Recently, searching for nature and wilder areas is related to pandemic conditions. World Tourism Organization (WTO) (2021) have some projections on changes traveler behaviors associated with preferring nature based activities, rural tourism, road trips and health – safety based isolated areas.
When looking at the camping and caravan tourism market, although clear and up-to-date figures are not available, the data obtained from some regional studies give us important clues. According to 2016 figures (Coleman Company, Inc, & Outdoor Foundation, 2017), 40.5 million Americans, 13.7% of the population over the age of six participated in the camp activities, this weight revealed a total of 587.2 million, 14.5 overnight stays per person.
In the European Union, as of 2017, this figure is 397 million in total and 12% in tourist accommodation, while France has a weight of 31%, Italy 14% and England 13%. Countries such as Denmark and Luxembourg also occupy important places in this market (Eurostat, 2019). Regarding caravan tourism, Caldicott et al. (2014) present important figures regarding the economy in 2014.
Accordingly, while the caravan market has a market size of 7 billion Australian dollars with 2014 estimated figures, it has become an industry where more than 10 thousand people are employed. It is stated that 86% of the population of Australia and 80% of New Zealand spend a holiday or an overnight stay in camp-caravan parks at least once in their lifetime (Brooker & Joppe, 2013).
When the 2018 figures regarding caravans in the European continent are examined, it has been emphasized that more than 200,000 vehicles are in circulation, with a high rate in Germany, and these numbers have reached an increase of 8 - 10% as of recent years (European Caravan Federation, 2019). But the case of Turkey, as a mass tourism destination similar to some other Mediterranean mass tourism destinations, camp and caravan tourism is not the first choice for focusing.
It was emphasized that the concepts of camping and caravanning are very old and that people have been doing this type of life or travel for many years. However, it has not been common for this trend to turn into a form of tourism or to be expressed as a type of tourism. Even though it is old, it seems that it has started to have a flourishing part in the tourism sector, and it expresses a fundamental trend, from being a niche - a small market (Mikulic et al., 2017; Brooker & Joppe, 2013; Gürsoy & Chen, 2012).
Despite these developments, it is pointed out that scientific studies and publications in this area are lacking. It was especially stated that there are important deficiencies in information and numerical data due to this lacking (Mikulic et al., 2017; Caldicott et al., 2014).
Apart from the data obtained from the caravan parks, it is very difficult to understand its potential statistically, considering that the mobility of camp and caravan is carried out freely and unrecorded without an official connection (excluding traveling abroad by caravan).
Accordingly, it has not emerged as a type of tourism that is highly emphasized by destination marketers, planners and policy makers (Caldicott et al., 2014). On the other hand, last developments on pandemic have showed the importance of the camp and caravan tourism.
Although there is no any new study emphasizing the potential of camp and caravan tourism in pandemic period, some sectoral indicators and few scientific studies (Şengel et al., 2020; Cohen, 2020) point out that nature based tourism activities and camp and caravan tourism have been the best alternatives to keep alive tourism movements.
3 CAMP AND CARAVAN TOURISM IN THE CONTEXT OF SUSTAINABILITY AND NATURE BASED SOCIAL DISTANCE
Çelik, Bahar and Tatar (2017; 1282) start with an emphasis on the camping-related activities, “tourism industry, which has been founded on mass tourism for many years, has started to change with the developments in the 21st century, and considering the developing technology, changing economic conditions and consumer behaviors, it has been observed that mass tourism has started to take the place of more individual and nature-based alternative tourism types”.
In addition to these statements, the researchers emphasized the trend from mass to singular- specific, to alternative rather than general and especially nature (Çelik et al., 2017; O’Neill, Riscinto-Kozub & Hyfte, 2010). At this point, camping and caravan tourism means a market that has emerged as a lifestyle for many years and now appears as a touristic consumption.
Camp and caravan tourism is characterized as a movement that responds to many global challenges and negative trends in social development, where the return to the formation of civilization, sustainability, services, outdoor activities and social values are revealed again (Milohnic & Bonifacic, 2014; O’Neill et al., 2010).
Developing camp quality, outdoor programs and activities, innovative camping accommodation, increasing demands with the formation of safer areas, and a new generation family structure that considers sustainability are the most important sources of the development of this tourism type (Milohnic & Bonifacic, 2014).
In the recent trend of this nature-based trend, however, the desire of young families to prepare their camps and caravans for the education of children and natural conditions comes to the fore. Except for short-term weekend excursions, it is seen that all holidays, even longer periods, except for the school season, go to camps for this purpose (Caldicott et al., 2014).
Considering some features of camping and caravan tourism, it can be said that it has a structure suitable for nature sensitivity and sustainability tendency differently from many other types of tourism. Although natural life is one of the most important motivations in these tourism movements, the consumption of both land and other important resources (water, clean air…) is very low and the demand for consumption is minimal compared to the accommodation facilities built as buildings (Hardy & Kirkpatrick, 2017).
However, in some studies (Caldicott et al., 2014; Marion & Farrell, 2002), it is emphasized that camping can cause environmental problems due to the lack of legal regulations in this regard all over the world. It is also pointed out that the use of unregistered areas, especially rural areas and roadsides for camping and caravans is harmful to the environment. The free mobility of camping, even for tourism, raises negative issues with security.
It was emphasized that the concepts of camp, camping and caravan are very old and that people have made this kind of life or travel for many years. However, it has not been common for this trend to turn into a tourism form or to be expressed as a tourism type. Even though it is old, it is seen that it has started to have a flourishing cake in the tourism sector, and it is not a niche - small market but it expresses a basic tendency.
As it is referred, camp and caravan tourism generally has been accepted based on minimal consumption and not been associated with luxury. But there is a new concept on camping “Glamping”. Glamping has become one of the issues that have increased in recent years with regard to camping and caravan tourism, both in the sector and in academic studies.
Glamping is a concept derived from the combination of the English word "glamorous" - spectacular, fascinating with the words "camping". As the name implies, it can be considered as a more luxurious and comfortable form of camping. It was designed for the rich who traveled to Africa in the 1990s, who did not want to leave their luxury consumption in the face of difficult natural conditions and then began to spread as a current (Çelik et al., 2017).
Glamping can be considered as an alternative accommodation not only for luxury consumption but also for those who love nature but who are afraid of environmental factors such as insects. It may also be possible to include young and adventurous families with young children.
Although it largely overlaps with the motivations of camping and caravan tourism, it can be distinguished from a classic camping activity with the use of luxury bungalows, tree houses, igloo and luxury tents (Brooker & Joppe, 2013). Emphasizing on the sustainability, Glamping can be seen as an alternative for luxury accommodated tourism movements positively. Brochado and Pereira (2017; 80) point out that “glamping facilities employ ‘ingenious techniques for sustainability’, so guests can ‘see how much time and effort has gone into ensuring the best environmentally sound use of the land”.
Glamping concept can solve the problem on which is about disconnection between green and sensitive beliefs and actual luxury wants. It means that most of the consumers support green practices, but these beliefs do not transform to actual green – sustainable purchase and consuming decisions McDonald and Oates’s (2006). On the other hand, production side is also in a dilemma about fallowing what kind of production and marketing strategy; green and minimal or luxury and huge.
It can be opened a specific relationship about camping and caravanning movement and Covid-19 pandemic period. According to UNWTO (2021) evaluation about pandemic crisis effects on tourism, international tourism has backed to 30 years ago by comparing 2019 data, -74% international tourist arrivals meaning 1 billion losses, loss in export revenues from international tourism US$ 1.3 trillion, estimated loss in global GDP over US$ 2 trillion, 100-120 million direct tourism jobs at risk.
Pillai, Kulshreshtha and Korstanje (2021) emphasize that although many study and reports have focused on the effect of pandemic, there is little knowledge on reality and uncertainty is still dominating the future plans on tourism. But, this unexpected crisis has also push the authorities thinking on different alternatives.
Post-pandemic outputs probably will be re-shape the social relationships and tourism movements based on living with social distance or more isolated preferences like travelling to natural areas and digital options (Dachary, Burne & Arnaiz, 2020; Sigala, 2020; Korstanje, 2021; Richards & Morrill, 2021).
It seems that nature based tourism types like camp and caravan are the best options and some sources because potential tourists will not be willing to stay at hotels and will concentrate on safety mostly (Gursoy & Chi, 2020; Richards & Morrill, 2021).
OECD report on pandemic (2020) show that camping areas have been opened generally while other tourism related areas and facilities are closed because of lockdown rules. With this sensitivity and closeness to natural areas has caused to awareness on sustainability. People have understood the value of the natural areas in pandemic period (Cohen, 2020).
Şengel, et al. (2020) ask a question and emphasize on this issue, “is social distancing possible in tourism, evaluating the camp and caravan tourism”. Researchers explain the importance of this tourism type in pandemic period. According to the study, social interactions are limited in this type of tourism similar to other needs and products (accommodation facilities, food, etc.).
So, people who attend the camping and caravanning activities, feel more confidence in this isolated and secure environment escaping from crowd and risky places. Additionally, because of restrictions and security for international travels, domestic travels which include camping and caravanning, have been preferred by tourists caring social distance (Şengel et al., 2020; Wyman, 2020).
On the supply side, tourism practitioners have faced with a crisis period because of pandemic and have started to think about the alternatives. Many academic study have been conducted on it to evaluate this negative period as well.
But there is not many academic study on the issue to produce alternatives for tourism industry. It seems that camp and caravan tourism is not only a practical alternatives for tourism industry, but also a scientific research area where is needed to search more for future of tourism and tourist.
As a case study report of Mulder (2020; 36) about pandemic impacts on Latin America’s tourism industry, it is expected that demands for natural attractions like shorelines, volcanoes and rivers will continue as trends move toward natural destinations, and social distancing will become part of the new normal. And report says that potential tourists are planning to prefer unique, customized and sustainable experiences, favoring nature based alternatives. So, it can be said that camp and caravan tourism is probably the most attractive alternative similar to this case.
4 METHODOLOGY
The study has used two different methodological approaches. To explain the sustainable effects of camp and caravan tourism, literature based conceptual and theoretical examination has been hold as second hand data. Secondly, webpages based data collection procedures have been performed referring Internet-Mediated Research (IMR) as explained by Hewson and Laurent (2012; 165) like, “Internet-mediated research involves the gathering of novel, original data to be subjected to analysis in order to provide new evidence in relation to a particular research question”.
IMR has been used to gather recent information about Covid-19 pandemic as a current issue which can be associated with camp and caravan tourism that is an arising trend in this period about both an alternative for sustainability against mass tourism and alternatively for secure tourism with social distance and nature-based facilities.
By search engine process on internet, research first hand data have been collected for hermeneutics and observational results (generally have a qualitative nature) methodologically (Hall & Valentin, 2005; Veal, 2006; Hewson & Leurent, 2008).
Veal (2006; 96) emphasizes that
“these methods have not traditionally been widely used in leisure and tourism studies, but with the development of postmodernism and the widening of the scope of text to include a wide variety of cultural products such as company documents, advertising material, websites and letters, the approach is attracting increasing attention”.
So, IMR approaches extend the scope of researches by providing easier access to topic-specific, deeper naturalistic data such as online group discussions, experts’ reports. Internet has also a communication power among researchers, research participants and research area or place (Markham, 2004; Reips, 2006; Hewson & Leurent, 2008) due to cost- and time-efficiency, ready access to a potentially vast, geographically diverse participant pool and different search places and easier access to select, specialist populations (Musch and Reips, 2000; Reips, 2006).
Some websites have been evaluated based on camp and caravan tourism and pandemic relationship by search engine process. As a simplistic way, writing “camp and caravan tourism – covid-19 pandemic” on web search engine, the study has tried to construct an inductive logic.
Procedures of qualitative content analysis have been performed and to receive research results hermeneutics and observational analysis have been used.
Internet sources like news pages, sectoral reports, consumer interviews are the main of the study for first hand data to produce and support knowledge on the subject. Daymon and Holloway (2011) imply that an internet based research is a good way to analyze not only providing insights into, such as company or consumer construct, but also helping to see evidences for researches. Considering these details, the data collection and production procedures have been organized as a passive participation and observation. Then, comments have developed based on these by hermeneutical approaches.
First step was to decide what kind of information we needed. Second step was to separate and to solve the data subject to subject. And finally, to complete the conclusions, researchers have developed general hermeneutics to show the importance of the subject (Daymon & Holloway, 2011).
Searching text “camp and caravan tourism – Covid – 19 pandemic” on web pages, twelve sources have been examined, caring the global triteness and credible sources, official or formal institutional web pages (not commercial and personal) and close to scientific comments.
Sampling has been validated by purposive style because sources of data have been defined by researchers based on nature of the research subject (Marvasti, 2004).
Credibility is the most important approaches to provide validity and reliability in a qualitative data collection process. To manage the credibility, peer debriefing procedures have been used (Creswell, 2003). It is supposed that researchers have deeper knowledge on the study concepts and enough knowledge for evaluation of indicators (Holloway & Wheeler, 1996; Creswell, 2003).
Because of using published sources by internet, there is no any discussion on bias to develop research outputs. Based on these criteria, international news channels’ webpages, newspaper web pages, sectoral updated reports by experts and researchers have been selected to analyze.
Some of them have provide pdf formats like reports and some have broadcasted directly. Mentioning the reason of selecting the IMR, different geographical findings have been collected like Europe, Australia and Latin America (especially related to Brasil). Also, some sectoral implications have been developed by regional considerations.
5 ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
According to literature based and theoretical findings of the first part of the study, camp and caravan tourism is not only about being a current alternative tourism trend, but also about adding contributions to sensitivity on nature emphasizing on sustainability. So, some emerging facts of camp caravan tourism can be evaluated like:
Although many researches point out the positive sides, a few researches’ points are about negative impacts of camp and caravan tourism. According to Cole’s campsite impact models, impacts of camping are about level of camping size, usage of natural sources and activity concentration.
The model supposes that “concentrating heavy use on a limited number of impacted sites will result in less aggregate impact than spreading use among a larger number of low to moderate use sites” (Cole, 1992; 255-256).
Marion and Farrell (2002) imply that camping and related movements have negative impacts on environment by disturbing vegetation and wildlife, changing natural composition, polluting the water sources, damaging green areas and soil.
However, Hardy and Kirkpatrick (2017) mention about environmental impacts of camping emphasizing the reason of cost rather than behavioral and attitudinal impacts. According to researchers, campers have no any intentionally negative thoughts or high consumption behaviors, but because of low cost of camping, they create a propensity to natural environment and sources.
As it is appeared, a little discussion is arising on camp and related movement comparing with positive impacts, but this is not generalizable outputs which cannot supported by behavioral and attitudinal indicators.
Generally, these negative impacts may leave a question mark against positive sites, but the negative site is compensable with by gaining experiencing on camp and caravan movements especially for new users. So, some findings can be summarized about the negative impacts:
The second part’s findings are discussed based on first-hand data collected by IMR. These findings are associated with evaluations of Covid-19 pandemic and developments on camp and caravan tourism in this period.
Discussing the positive sustainable impacts of camp and caravan tourism as a nature based and open air activity, currently another issue about the camp and caravan tourism have realized on pandemic conditions focusing the social distance, lockdowns for travel and tourism activities and socio-psychological outputs.
The study has tried to examine the developments scope of camp and caravan tourism in order to add more knowledge to sustainability also. But, there is no direct source to discuss this relationship.
On the other hand, despite observing many internet based local – international and formal – informal news or reports, reliability, credibility and validity of the most were not enough to analysis. So, limited sources have been examined by IMR observation and hermeneutic approaches. Because of being current developments, sources’ actuality has been valid.
Many of the sources have implied that there is a booming about camping and caravanning industry. Some titles are like; “Coronavirus: Will camping be on the cards this summer?” (BBC News, 2020), “Caravan sales soar as people flee cities” (Financial Review, 2020), “Turkey: caravan tourism gets a boost during pandemic” (Kalyoncuoğlu, 2020), “The Caravan Industry Association of Australia said since the easing of restrictions in recent weeks, every state and territory had experienced a "boom" in caravan sales and enquiries, some by up to 30 per cent” (ABC.net, 2020), “Coronavirus: Motorhome, caravan sales 'surprisingly high' in NZ amid COVID-19” (Newshub, 2020). “How some Japanese escape the coronavirus: camping - Tents emerge as getaway for teleworkers and stressed-out families” (Hirashima, 2020).
Based on BBC News’ (2020) interviews about travel during coronavirus period, some campers and RVers have focused on “completely self-isolate without interfering with anyone else at all” and have said that “you usually find hygiene levels are very good because there's not loads of people and it's not too busy” about camping.
These discourses show that camping and caravanning can be one of the best choices for this kind of public problems by providing health conditions and isolated – under-population secure environment.
These indicators are about importance of camping and caravanning activities in pandemic period providing the isolated travel and holiday facilities. As it has been mentioned, some geographies and countries are attracting attention for camp and caravan tourism.
For example, some Latin American countries come forward their virgin natural potential and isolated areas in parks like Brazil. According to Karantzavelou’s (2021) survey report, despite expecting domination of European countries in camp and caravan travels, Brazil is an alternative market focusing on restoration of heritage and camping sites.
Researcher emphasizes that improvement of lifestyle, showcasing cultural diversity, and cooperative partnerships between governments to enhance infrastructure for better living and commuting are other factors contributing to the growth of the camping and caravanning market projecting nearly 8 % growth till 2029.
The main scope of this inferences for Brazil basically about its ecological diversity, a pleasant tropical climate (Santana, 2000; Mariutti, Giraldi & Crescitelli, 2013). Worldwide Camping Index (2021) is also support these indicators about some Latin American countries.
In pandemic report of OECD (2020), some specific directions have been defined about pandemic regulations that some countries’ will try to be alive tourism industry in pandemic period. For example, Korea have decided to support tourism in pandemic period by simplifying the hotel classification system, promoting forest recreation and nature-based tourism and implementing special relaxed regulations for the camping industry.
Except these specific reports and news for different countries, when a general search on camp and caravan tourism and pandemic reflections has been evaluated, some countries are frequently subjected like Australia, Turkey, England.
Another search also has hold about sustainability opportunities of camp and caravan tourism in pandemic period, despite obtaining limited information, some results are attractive. According to news of Deutsche Welle (DW) (2021), in pandemic period, discussions on sustainability are more important because there are many changes in tourism movements and sustaining the tourism is in danger now.
However, at this time many travelers also opted for more sustainable alternatives when choosing their accommodation: many preferred vacation apartments or campsites to hotels, for safety and hygienic reasons. Wyman’s report (published by World Travel & Tourism Council) (2020) directs some important point for the sustainability of tourism which can be defined activities about saving and refreshing the tourism industry.
This recovery report emphasizes two sides; consumer and business side. For both, nature based, open air, isolated areas are the main for tourists. These reflections and some cases of the reports show the answer for “why camp and caravan tourism is the suitable type of tourism in pandemic perıod and one of the alternative way to sustainability of tourism during and post pandemic period.
According to total inferences from the cases by IMR, camp and caravan tourism and natured based activities have an important position for pandemic developments. These indicators can be summarized like:
6 FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
The study has discussed the importance of camp and caravan tourism. There are two different outputs and directions of the study based on recent period of the world tourism.
The first research discussion has been on sustainable positive effects of the camp and caravan tourism especially about arising debates of “over tourism”. Being a new phenomenon and a lack of empirical knowledge on over tourism, the study has used literature and observational holistic viewpoint to show which alternatives can solve mass movement.
At this point, camp and caravan tourism has been seen as a key alternative with some practical implications like; (i) camp and caravan consumers have minimal life mentality respecting the protection of sources, (ii) with this green respect, they are opposed to overcrowding and add positive contribution social sustainability as well, (iii) and camp and caravan tourism has a popular attractiveness for modern people to isolate both mental and physical health.
While the study researchers have discussing the sustainability of the nature and community, covid-19 pandemic has caused new and probably more serious agenda for tourism industry. Searching some sources about camp and caravan tourism and over tourism relationship, it has been noticed that interestingly and interestedly camp and caravan tourism trend has gained importance similar to this relationship.
The main outputs of this similarity is that both arising issue is about the future of tourism and more importantly about surviving the tourism. Meaningfully, escaping to nature means also isolated and healthy life for people through joining camp and caravan tourism activities. According to argument for both sides, camp and caravan tourism is one of the main alternative.
IMR based findings have showed that nature based and isolated trends in tourism movements are valid for many destinations. Although pandemic crisis has caused a huge decrease, camp and caravan tourism has faced a booming because of providing social distance from crowd areas especially in lockdown periods.
As mentioned, this can be a survival way for tourism and tourists. The study also shows that these developments can offer new opportunities against negative pandemic impacts. For example, some European countries have focused camp and caravan market to vibrate related sectors like tourism and production. Some Latin American countries (like Brazil, Mexico, Argentina) have felt the negative impacts of pandemic mostly, but as emphasized by some experts and reports, their virgin and protected lands can be strong potential for nature-based tourism movements like camp and caravan tourism against these impacts for both health and economic conditions.
Associated with these indicators, it can be said that current popularity of camp and caravan tourism is not a temporal trend because its main consumption dimensions (minimal, isolated, eco-sense, among others exactly point out the sustainability points and survival ways of the tourism.
According the results, the study can offer some academic and practical suggestions based on research limitations:
For the destination marketing in new-normal era, caring the sustainable dimensions, camp and caravan tourism destinations can develop new strategies for producing and enhancing camp and caravan facilities. But there are no exact marketing strategies for nature-based tourism types. Academicians and practitioners can share their power and marketing experiences to accelerate steps on these. For example, considering a current case of pandemic, it can be developed new ideas like glamping, health and sports tourism types which directs to nature-based activities.
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Acknowledgements
An earlier version of this paper has been represented at Congress of International Travel & Tourism Dynamics-ITTD2020.
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Processo Editorial / Editorial Process / Proceso Editorial
Editor Chefe / Editor-in-chief / Editor Jefe: PhD Thiago D. Pimentel (UFJF).
Recebido / Received / Recebido: 17.10.2020; Revisado / Revised / Revisado: 26.12.2020; 19.02.2021; 01.05.2021; Aprovado / Approved / Aprobado: 14.05. 2021; Publicado / Published / Publicado: 27.05.2021.
Seção revisada às cegas por pares / Double-blind peer review section / Sessión revisada por pares ciegos.