Camping is making a comeback in China

Managers of several campsites in China said that they have started to see a surge in orders since the end of February this year, and their services are fully booked on weekends.

Over the past nearly two weeks, the search volume for keywords related to "campsites" surged 450 percent year-on-year, and the number of posts on this theme increased by about 300 percent, statistics from Meituan, an on-demand service platform and Dianping, a Chinese review and rating service provider, indicated.

Tourists go camping in Nanchuan District of southwest China's Chongqing, Oct. 2, 2022. (Xinhua/Qu Mingbin)

A campsite located in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, has seen a recovery in its business in recent days. The 24 tents provided by the campsite are always fully booked ahead of weekends.

A Dan, manager of the campsite, said the high season for camping lasts from April to November, and guests who order a tent usually stay for two days and one night at the campsite, while those who bring their own tents tend to stay longer.

A Dan said another of his campsites in Foshan city, south China's Guangdong Province, received 100 to 200 visitors during a single session on the last two weekends, while during the National Day holiday of 2022, a holiday commonly viewed as a peak period for tourism, the campsite received just over 100 visitors during a single session.

Statistics from Ctrip, an online travel agency, showed that bookings for campsites grew by 39 percent in the Feb. 20-March 6 period from the Feb. 5-Feb. 19 period, and 102 percent from the same period last year. Guangzhou, Shanghai, Dunhuang, Sanya and Shenzhen were among the top 10 most popular camping destinations.

Statistics from Tujia.com, an online platform for booking shared accommodation, showed that bookings for B&B hotels related to camping has increased 52 percent from last year, and grown 37 times from the same period of 2019.

A man surnamed Fan, who is founder of a campsite in Guangzhou city, Guangdong Province, said his tents were almost fully booked during the Spring Festival holiday of 2023, which fell in late January.

On the last few weekends, Fan's tents were fully booked ahead of time. The campsite provides more than 80 rooms, including tents, motorhomes and wooden houses, which are priced at between 800 and 1,500 yuan ($215.25) per night during the weekends.

The increasing demand for camping services has given a boost to other related services, including accommodation, restaurants and coffee shops.