Real Richness

It is a noisy world out there. Screens, schedules, crisis headlines and very little room left for each other. Caravanning and camping is where Australians get that connection back.

Australians are searching for connection, and increasingly they are searching for it outdoors. They want fewer things and better time. They want to travel with people rather than past them. They want a few days where nobody is chasing them, the phone is flat and the conversation runs long around a fire.

What people take away is not the van or the site. It is a few days where the world outside stopped asking anything of them, and everyone they care about was in one place, at one table, at the same time. That is what brings them back the following year, and the year after that.

About the research

Real Richness is our new report on the social and wellness benefits of caravanning and camping in Australia. It draws on 2,000 Australians: 1,000 campers, and 1,000 people who have not camped since 2023.

Most research about this industry counts dollars. This one looks at what is harder to measure, and confirms what the industry has watched happen for decades, on sites, in showrooms and on the road.

A taste of what campers told us

There is a good deal more in the report, including what campers said about affordability, about camping as a leveller, and about what it teaches children.

In their own words

Camping always grounds me and makes me feel at peace.

Tayla, Western Australia

We always feel more grounded when close to nature. It is important to recalibrate when life is overwhelming and stressful.

Joanne, Queensland

How to use it in your business

• Share it with your team. It is a clear reminder of what your guests and customers are actually there for.
• Use the findings in your own marketing and in sales conversations.
• Use it with councils, planners and local government on why access to camping and caravan parks matters to community wellbeing.
• Use it to support your case with local media, schools and community groups.

What happens next

This research is not going to sit on a shelf. Real Richness will underpin our media and public relations activity through to the summer season, a season shadowed by cost of living pressure and higher fuel prices. Watch for coverage over the coming months, and use the report to support your own local marketing while the conversation is live.

Caravanning and camping contributes $27.1 billion to the Australian economy each year, and 87% of trips are taken in regional Australia. Real Richness is about the other return: what those trips give back to the people taking them, and to the communities that welcome them in.