Camping & Caravan Travel Statistics 2026: UK Trips, Spending & Trends

Camping and caravanning is one of the largest parts of the UK's domestic holiday market. The UK Caravan and Camping Alliance (UKCCA) puts visitor spending generated by holiday parks and campsites at £12.2 billion a year, supporting 226,745 full-time jobs, while Great Britain Tourism Survey data shows Britons took around 5.8 million camping, caravanning and glamping trips in 2024. The sector also has serious hardware behind it: 27,891 new caravans and motorhomes were registered in the UK in 2024, the third-highest total in Europe. The figures below come from official industry and tourism-board sources — the UKCCA, the European Caravan Federation, VisitBritain and KOA — and are the latest available as of 2026.

Key camping and caravan statistics

• UK holiday parks and campsites generate £12.2bn in visitor expenditure, equating to £7.2bn in Gross Value Added (UKCCA, Pitching the Value 2024).
• The sector supports 226,745 full-time jobs across the UK.
• In 2023 there were 6,169 holiday parks and campsites operating in the UK, with 439,828 pitches.
• Britons took 5.8 million camping, glamping and touring trips in Great Britain in 2024, totalling 20.1 million nights (GBTS 2024).
• 27,891 new leisure vehicles were registered in the UK in 2024, up 9.9% year on year — with motorhome registrations up around 35% (European Caravan Federation).
• Across Europe, 221,207 new caravans and motorhomes were registered in 2024, up 5.2% (ECF).
• In North America, 52.2 million households camped in 2025, generating US$66bn in local spending (KOA).

How many camping and caravanning trips do Britons take?

• The Great Britain Tourism Survey recorded 5.8 million camping, glamping and touring trips in 2024, adding up to 20.1 million nights — an average of 3.46 nights per trip (GBTS 2024, via Campsites.co.uk).
• Tent camping was the largest segment with 2 million trips worth £438m, ahead of campervan and motorhome holidays (1.8 million trips, £415m), touring caravan trips (1.4 million, £364m) and glamping (600,000 trips, £128m).
• The post-pandemic staycation boom has cooled: VisitBritain reports overall GB domestic overnight trips fell 10% versus 2023 and 14% versus 2022, and the number of trips with a stay in caravan, camping or glamping accommodation also reduced against both years (VisitBritain).
• Value is holding up better than volume: spend on overnight trips in England in 2024 was 5% above 2023 and 3% above 2022 (VisitBritain).
• The sector still benefits from a bigger base of participants — an estimated 4.5 million Britons took their first-ever camping holiday during the pandemic (cited in the UKCCA England report).

The visitor economy: parks, pitches and jobs

• The UKCCA's Pitching the Value 2024 report puts sector visitor expenditure at £12.2bn, generating £7.2bn GVA and supporting 226,745 full-time jobs (UKCCA; NCC).
• In 2023 the UK had 6,169 holiday parks and campsites offering 439,828 pitches (UKCCA).
• Holiday park and campsite visitors stay 82% longer and spend 12% more than the national tourism average, with touring visitors and holiday-caravan owners spending just over £100 per day on and off site.
• England accounts for 4,754 of those parks and campsites and 320,901 pitches — 47% owner-occupied holiday caravans and 34% touring pitches — with the South West the biggest region (1,133 parks, 80,559 pitches) (UKCCA England report).
• The English sector alone generated £9.2bn in gross direct visitor expenditure in 2022/23, supporting 170,429 FTE jobs; guests in rented park accommodation spent on average £203 per day, against £99 for touring visitors and £114 for holiday-caravan owners.

Caravan and motorhome registrations

• The UK registered 27,891 new leisure vehicles in 2024, up 9.9% on 2023 and the third-largest total in Europe behind Germany (96,392) and France (33,783) (European Caravan Federation — full-year 2024 tables).
• Motorhomes are driving that growth: UK motor-caravan registrations jumped 35% to 16,447 in 2024, while touring-caravan registrations fell 13.3% to 11,444.
• Across Europe, 221,207 new caravans and motorhomes were registered in 2024 (+5.2%): motorhomes rose 9.5% to 160,342 units while caravans slipped 4.7% to 60,865 (CIVD).
• Annual European registrations have stayed above 200,000 every year since 2018, underlining the market's stability (CIVD). France, Europe's second-biggest market, features in our France tourism statistics.
• The pandemic produced a UK sales record that still frames the market: 16,608 new motorhomes were registered in the 12 months to June 2021 — worth around £1.15bn — beating the pre-Covid record of 15,342 (NCC, via Aboutcamp).

Clubs, ownership and who camps now

• The Caravan and Motorhome Club represents over 1.1 million caravan, motorhome, campervan and trailer-tent owners and offers access to more than 2,700 campsites across the UK and Europe (Caravan and Motorhome Club).
• The Camping and Caravanning Club — the world's oldest club for all forms of camping — has over 600,000 members (Camping and Caravanning Club).
• The pandemic shifted the sector's demographics upmarket: 37% of new campers have a household income above £50,000, compared with 21% of pre-pandemic campers (UKCCA England report).
• Premium demand is robust — 69% of recent and prospective campers say they would pay more for a pitch with private bathroom facilities (UKCCA).
• Camping is also a natural fit for independent travellers — see our solo travel statistics for how that market is growing.

Glamping: the premium end keeps growing

• Britons took 600,000 glamping trips in Great Britain in 2024, spending 1.3 million nights and £128m (GBTS 2024, via Campsites.co.uk).
• In North America, glamping accounted for 29% of all camping experiences in 2025, and 31% of new campers identify as glampers (KOA 2026 report).
• 54% of campers say they plan to glamp in 2026 (KOA, via SGB Media).
• Market researcher IMARC values the global glamping market at around US$3.95bn in 2025, projected to reach US$9.78bn by 2034 — a 10.6% compound annual growth rate (IMARC Group).
• Glamping sits at the intersection of outdoor and high-end travel — our luxury travel statistics cover the wider premium market.

North America and the global context

• More than 52 million North American households camped in 2025 (52.2m, against 52.5m in 2024) — well above the 42 million of pre-pandemic 2019 and 32 million in 2014, though below the 2022 record of 58.5 million (KOA, via SGB Media).
• Camping generated US$66bn in local community spending in 2025, up from US$61bn in 2024 and US$49bn in 2023 (KOA).
• The pipeline of newcomers remains strong: 2.2 million new campers took it up in 2025, and 8.5 million households have tried camping for the first time since 2023 (KOA, via SGB Media).
• Average daily spending per camper exceeded US$200 in 2025, excluding accommodation, and 31% of campers plan to spend more nights camping in 2026 than in 2025 (KOA).
• Camping's overlap with active outdoor holidays is covered in our adventure travel statistics.

Sources

• UK Caravan and Camping Alliance — Pitching the Value 2024 (press release)
• UKCCA / Frontline Consultants — Pitching the Value 2024: England report
• National Caravan Council — UK holiday parks and campsites generate £12.2bn
• VisitBritain — Great Britain domestic overnight trips: latest results
• European Caravan Federation — Registrations of new leisure vehicles, Jan-Dec 2024
• CIVD — European caravanning market remains at a high level
• Caravan and Motorhome Club — press release
• The Camping and Caravanning Club — membership
• Campsites.co.uk — UK camping statistics (GBTS 2024 data)
• KOA — 2026 Camping & Outdoor Hospitality Report announcement
• SGB Media — KOA camping participation coverage
• Aboutcamp — NCC UK motorhome sales record
• IMARC Group — global glamping market