Best half-year ever for German caravanning industry

The caravanning industry in Germany has just experienced its best half-year ever in the first half of 2021 with almost 63,000 motorhomes and caravans newly registered in the country – around 15 per cent growth on 2020. Of that 63,000, about 48,500 were new motorhome registrations, which is an all-time high and a 22 per cent increase on 2020, whereas new caravan registrations actually fell by around five per cent, largely down to supply chain issues.

These figures were released by the German Caravan Industry Association (CIVD), who also reported that by the middle of 2021 the same number of new caravans and motorhomes had been registered in Germany as in the whole of 2017, which was a record year at the time. 

Daniel Onggowinarso, managing director of CIVD, said: “Caravanning is one of the safest forms of holiday in these times, as you travel individually with a leisure vehicle and only with people from your own household and are largely self-sufficient thanks to your own sleeping, living, cooking and sanitary facilities.

“Due to the re-increase of VAT, many customers had brought forward their vehicle purchases into the old year. In addition, the long period of very high infection as shown by the high demand for leisure vehicles. The caravanning industry recorded the industry a new all-time best. By the middle of the year, as many new leisure vehicles rates and the COVID-19 measures severely restricted sales and distribution. Thus, neither caravanning fairs nor the in-house fairs at dealerships could take place in spring. Potential customers, however, want to see and touch the vehicles ‘live’. Real product presentations speed up purchase decisions considerably. Travel restrictions at caravan and abroad have not helped growth either.”

While this represents good news for most in the industry, there are still some issues to overcome, notably with supply, which has been attributed to the five per cent decrease in new caravan registrations. Daniel explained: "The pandemic is still having a strong impact on the availability of components and raw materials worldwide. Manufacturers have many vehicles that are practically finished but cannot be delivered because a certain part is missing. However, we are optimistic for the second half of the year. If the situation in production develops positively, the of the year.”

Read our DOING BUSINESS WITH GERMANY feature in our second issue.

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