Special Field Report — No. 02: The North American Camping Boom Has Grown Up — And What That Means for European Outdoor Hospitality

52 million households. $66 billion in local spending. Four consecutive years of record-level participation. The KOA Camping & Outdoor Hospitality Report 2026 — the most comprehensive longitudinal study of the North American outdoor market — documents a sector that has moved from pandemic anomaly to structural travel behaviour. For anyone building in European outdoor hospitality, this is the most important data release of the year.

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The report is North American. The implications are not.

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Twelve consecutive years of survey data. 4,088 households. A methodology rigorous enough that private equity uses it as a primary source for acquisition underwriting. What the KOA Camping & Outdoor Hospitality Report 2026 documents is not a trend — it is a market that has matured, stabilised, and now reveals its structural character with unusual clarity.

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The findings confirm several things that European outdoor hospitality operators have been arguing on instinct. They quantify things that were previously only anecdotal. And they reveal at least one dynamic — the wellness motivation, the community function of campgrounds, the generational spending pattern — that has significant implications for anyone designing outdoor hospitality product in Europe right now.

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Here is what the data actually says.

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The Market Did Not Contract. It Matured.

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The headline number is 52.16 million North American camping households in 2025 — virtually identical to 2024, and materially above the pre-2020 baseline of 41.97 million. The pandemic boom brought millions of first-time campers into the market. The question for the past three years has been: how many would stay?

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The answer is: most of them.

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What changed is not the number of campers. What changed is how often they camp. Households camping three or more times per year have declined by ten percentage points since 2019. Households camping once per year have increased by 257% over the same period. The market is broader and less frequent — which is a different thing from contracting.

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Among active campers, camping still accounts for 56% of all leisure trips. These are not occasional dabblers. They are travellers who have integrated outdoor stays as a core element of how they travel — even if that integration is now one or two trips per year rather than five.

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This is the pattern that precedes market deepening. A wide base of occasional users is the precondition for the branded, quality-differentiated operators who convert those users into loyalists. North America is at the beginning of that conversion. Europe is three to five years behind.

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For European operators, the structural read is direct: the demand base is there. The professionalisation layer that converts occasional users into repeat guests — branded product, consistent experience, digital booking, curated community — is the value creation opportunity. It was the opportunity in Germany. It is the opportunity across DACH, Scandinavia, and Southern Europe.

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Glamping Is No Longer a Niche. It Is the Gateway.

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29% of all camping in North America in 2025 was glamping. Over 15 million households went glamping in the year. 54% of active campers plan to glamp in 2026. These are not niche numbers.

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The more important finding is structural: 31% of all new campers in 2025 classified themselves as glampers — a figure that has held constant since 2024. Glamping is functioning as the primary entry point for households that would not otherwise engage with outdoor hospitality. It is not a luxury add-on for existing campers. It is the gateway product for a segment that was previously unreachable.

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And once guests arrive via glamping, they stay. Nearly six in ten new campers said they loved their first camping experience — the highest satisfaction rate recorded since the study began. Gen X and Boomers report positive first experiences at nearly 90%. The dropout rate after a first glamping stay is not the problem. The problem is getting people there in the first place.

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Glampers also graduate. 65% of glampers choose it specifically because it allows them to disconnect while retaining luxury and convenience. One in four glampers expresses interest in trying traditional tent camping after their first glamping experience. Half of all Millennial glampers are exploring RV rental. The glamping experience does not create a closed consumer segment — it creates an outdoor-curious consumer who is ready to explore the wider category.

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The guest who arrives via glamping and enjoys the experience is worth more to the outdoor hospitality sector than the guest who camps in a tent twice a year. They spend more. They are more open to premium positioning. And they have not yet exhausted what the category can offer them.

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For European operators, this is the most direct data validation available for the premium outdoor accommodation thesis. Germany has almost no scaled glamping offer. The guest who would pay €150 to €200 per night for a well-designed outdoor retreat — and the data shows they exist, in material numbers — currently has no domestic branded option. They book in Iberia. They drive to Austria. Or they stay home.

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The Guest Profile: Who Is Actually Spending

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The generational breakdown of the 2025 camping population is more nuanced than the headline numbers suggest — and more instructive for product design.

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Millennials are the dominant active camping generation at 29% of all campers. Camping accounts for 58% of their leisure trips — more than any other generation. Their average daily spend in local communities is $250. They are the most community-oriented campers: 40% say interactions with neighbouring guests make their trips more memorable. And since 2021, they have reduced their rate of working while camping by 26 percentage points. They are not choosing outdoor stays to extend their working day. They are choosing them to escape it.

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Gen Z is the most financially constrained and the highest-spending. 40% cite personal financial reasons for not camping in 2025. But when they do camp, their daily spend is $320 — the highest of any generation. 64% plan to rent an RV in 2026. They travel solo in search of social connection — 39% want to be around people without necessarily interacting with them. This is the psychology of a generation that uses shared spaces as a backdrop for potential connection, not a mechanism for forced socialisation. It is exactly the environment that a well-designed community camp creates.

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Boomers are returning. 25% of all new campers in 2025 were Boomers — up nearly ten percentage points from 2024. Among the 55–65 age group, 57% plan to camp more in retirement. 15% of this group plans to buy their first RV. The ageing of the camping population is a structural support for the market: as Baby Boomers retire with disposable income and time flexibility, they are moving toward the category, not away from it.

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Families remain a growth segment under-served by existing supply. 60% of families with children say camping offers better connection opportunities than any other form of travel. Families camp more frequently, spend more per day ($266), and are more likely to rent RVs than non-family campers. They are also more likely to return.

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The guest profile of the premium outdoor hospitality category — affluent, experience-motivated, community-oriented, wellness-seeking — is not a niche demographic. It is the dominant profile of the 2025 camping market.

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Why People Camp: The Wellness Motivation Is Now Primary

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This is the finding that most fundamentally changes the product design conversation.

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77% of US campers say that simply being in nature is sufficient for wellbeing — without structured programming or added amenities. 49% book camping trips specifically to improve their mental health. 61% cite slowing down and being present as their primary travel goal.

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The top activities linked to mental wellbeing while camping are walking near water (52%), wildlife viewing (52%), and night sky observation (50%). Not spa treatments. Not fitness classes. Not curated sunset experiences with a sommelier. Proximity to nature, absence of noise, and freedom from structure.

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This has direct implications for product design. The outdoor hospitality guest does not want to be managed. They want to be left alone in a beautiful place with comfortable shelter, reliable infrastructure, and the option — not the obligation — of community.

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81% of campers notice improvements to sleep, stress, and recovery while outdoors. 67% say that if health data demonstrated these improvements, they would camp more often. The biohacking movement — the growing consumer focus on tracking sleep, cortisol, recovery metrics — is creating a new argument for outdoor stays that did not exist five years ago. Camping is becoming the evidence-based wellness intervention. The product that captures this positioning will benefit from one of the most powerful consumer motivations in contemporary travel.

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The data also shows something instructive about the limits of amenity-led differentiation. Safety and security rank first as a campground selection criterion at 44%. Clean bathrooms rank second at 43%. Self-guided recreational activities third at 23%. The premium outdoor hospitality guest is not selecting on the basis of complex amenity stacks. They are selecting on the basis of safety, cleanliness, access to nature, and — for the right segment — the presence of community.

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Campgrounds as Third Places: The Community Function

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Three-quarters of all campers view campgrounds as a genuine third place — an environment outside of home and work where people connect and belong. This view is strongest among Millennials and Gen Z: 80% and 80% respectively confirm it.

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45% of campers report at least one meaningful interaction with another guest per trip. More than a third say those interactions make the trip more memorable. Gen Z is the most likely of any generation to maintain contact with people they meet at a campground — 43% stay in touch long after the stay. These are loyalty dynamics that most hospitality categories cannot produce.

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The campground that functions as a third place — that creates the conditions for community to emerge without engineering it — is not providing an amenity. It is providing something that has become scarce in contemporary life: a space where connection is possible without being transactional.

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For operators designing for this dynamic, the implications are practical. It is not about programming events. It is about physical design that makes encounter easy — shared fire areas, communal kitchens, spaces that invite lingering. It is about a guest mix that creates the conditions for connection. And it is about staff culture that maintains atmosphere without over-managing experience.

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This is not a new insight in hospitality. It is how co-living concepts think about common spaces. It is how boutique hotels think about bars and lobbies. What is new is that it is now the documented primary value of the camping and glamping category — measured across 52 million households.

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The Economic Data: Spending Is Growing, Barriers Are Real

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Camping-driven spending in local communities reached $66 billion in 2025 — a 67% increase over five years. The average daily spend per person passed $200 for the first time. These are not the economics of a budget travel category.

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The market is simultaneously bifurcating. Lower-income campers are highly price-sensitive, staying close to home, using camping as an alternative to more expensive leisure. Higher-income campers travel further, are most interested in glamping, and will book regardless of price increases. Both segments are large. They require different products.

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The most significant risk signal in the data is the financial constraint on Gen Z participation. 40% of Gen Z campers did not camp in 2025 primarily due to financial reasons. This is the generation with the highest daily spend when they do camp and the highest openness to premium outdoor experiences. The barrier is not aspiration. It is access.

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For operators targeting this demographic — as AWAYO® does — the pricing architecture matters. The entry price point must be low enough to overcome the financial barrier. The experience must be strong enough to justify the spend. And the stay duration must be flexible enough that a two-night midweek stay is as viable as a seven-day summer booking.

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What North America Tells Us About Europe

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The transfer of North American outdoor hospitality data to the European context requires calibration — but the structural dynamics translate more directly than the geographic distance suggests.

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The German camping market — 44.7 million overnight stays in 2025, €821 million in revenue, over 3,200 sites predominantly in family and municipal hands — is in the same structural position relative to professionalisation that North America was in approximately 2018 to 2020. The demand base is established. The guest profile is upgrading. The professionalisation layer has not arrived at scale.

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What North America shows is what happens next. The market broadens. First-time and occasional users become a larger share of the total. Glamping becomes the primary gateway for new entrants. Wellness motivation becomes the dominant booking driver. Community function becomes a genuine differentiator. And the operator that positions correctly for all four dynamics simultaneously — accessible premium, community-designed, wellness-positioned, tech-enabled — captures the value that the fragmented, family-operated baseline cannot generate.

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The Canadian data adds one dimension that is specifically relevant to the European moment: 50% of Canadian campers say they are less likely to travel to the US in 2026 compared to two years ago. Financial concerns, domestic preference, and geopolitical friction are redirecting travel toward domestic and near-international destinations. Across Europe, the same dynamic is visible — and the same redirection is happening. The guest who would have flown long-haul is now looking for a premium short-haul outdoor experience closer to home.

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That experience does not yet exist at scale in Central Europe. That is the gap.

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The Data in Summary

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Active camping households 2025: 52.16 million — stable vs 2024, 24% above 2019 (KOA / Cairn Consulting)

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Glamping share of all camping: 29% — 15 million households (KOA 2026)

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New campers who are glampers: 31% — consistent 2024/2025

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Average daily spend: $203 overall · $320 Gen Z · $266 families with children

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Total camping-driven local spending: $66 billion — +67% over 5 years

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Mental health as primary booking motivation: 49% of all campers

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Campgrounds as third place: 75% of campers — highest among Millennials and Gen Z

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WiFi impact on length of stay: +5.2 nights/year average · +9.3 nights/year for RV campers

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Boomer new camper share 2025: 25% — up ~10pp from 2024

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Survey methodology: 4,088 U.S. and Canadian households — margin of error ±1.82pp (U.S.)

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Sources: KOA Camping & Outdoor Hospitality Report 2026 · Cairn Consulting Group · Kampgrounds of America, Inc.

2026 KOA Camping & Outdoor Hospitality Report — Cairn Consulting Group, commissioned by Kampgrounds of America, Inc. 4,088 U.S. and Canadian households. Twelfth annual edition.

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This article is part of the AWAYO® Special Series — Field Notes on Hospitality. We read, watch, and listen to the conversations shaping the future of the industry, and apply what we find to the outdoor hospitality context we know best.

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