Why Camping Is Back and How Millennials Are Leading the Way

Ah, the Great Outdoors. For many generations, Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers in particular, the outdoors offer solitude—a chance to get away from it all, to really connect with nature but also to test personal physical limits. Look at outdoor ads from tour companies, gear manufacturers and retailers from 15 or 20 years back, and they probably tell the story of endurance and self-reliance. Most likely they feature a lone hiker fully kitted at the edge of a precipice, a rock climber sleeping in a hammock suspended halfway up a cliff or a kayaker plunging perilously over a waterfall. Intimidating? Yup. Accessible? Not really. That’s simply not how most Millennials roll—or would even want to roll if they had the means. And the outdoors industry is taking notice.

Resonance's The 2018 Future of U.S. Millennial Travel survey shows that in the next 24 months, 34% of Millennials plan to go camping. That number is only a few percentage points shy of those who plan to visit a major metropolitan city (38%). This is some staggering insight. 

After years of decline, the camping industry is growing, and it’s growing fast thanks to Millennials. Kampgrounds of America (KOA), the world’s largest system of privately held campgrounds, recently surveyed thousands of campers for their annual report and found that an estimated 13 million U.S. households plan to camp more in 2017 than they did the previous year. More than one million new households have started camping each year since 2014. How many of these new campers are Millennials? Of the 75 million active camper households in the U.S., 38% are aged 18-35—up from 34% in 2016. 

Back in 2015, REI announced it would close its doors on Black Friday to encourage customers to enjoy the outdoors instead of looking for shopping deals. The campaign, which featured the hashtag #OptOutside, resonated with Millennials on social media and spread like wildfire. The hashtag was accompanied by a meme generator, which encouraged people to share their own outdoors experiences, and a partnership with a geo-mapping service that designed a mobile site to help less-experienced outdoor enthusiasts find appropriate locations in their area to enjoy nature. The campaign was so successful that REI brought it back last year.

"As a nation we're still spending over 90% of our lives indoors and it's a trend we need to tackle," said REI CEO Jerry Stritzke. "The moment we announced our decision last year, people who build their lives around the outdoors really embraced the idea of reclaiming Black Friday. It took on a life of its own and became about much more than REI." 

The campaign became so popular that some 150 additional brands, retailers and organizations participated in #OptOutside. One of them, the National Parks Service, counted 330.97 million recreational visits to U.S. national parks in 2016—a 7.72% increase from the year before. Sure, the centennial anniversary of American parks propelled visits, as did the White House’s “Every Kid in a Park” ad campaign, aimed at older Millennial parents to have every fourth-grader in the country visit at least one park between September 2016 and August 2017. But visits to national parks were already on a five-year upswing in visitation nationwide, according to the National Park Service.

That’s a lot of tents and outdoor equipment to be sold. Indeed, brands like The North Face, which for decades focused specifically on technical gear for avid adventurers, are now also producing street style-inspired, user-friendly and comfortable products that look as good on the subway as they do in the subalpine. For those who aren't ready to invest in outdoor equipment, or perhaps don’t have the room in their cramped city apartments to store it, companies like REI offer weekend rentals.

For Millennials, and particularly those traveling with kids, renting in the final destination makes sense as it saves excess baggage fees (and transportation hassles) on commercial flights. Renting also gives young people opportunities to “try before you buy.” Renting toys that add that extra oomph to any #WeekendVibe adventure makes a lot of sense, plus there’s the coolness factor of trying gear that photographs well.

A favorite on Instagram with Millennials around the globe is San Francisco-based Oru Kayak, which makes an origami inspired kayak that folds to the size of a suitcase, can be easily shipped in a box and fits in the trunk of a car. Hipcamp, an Airbnb-type rental site for campers, makes it easier for users to find and reserve unique spots. While Tentrr is a online company that makes camping dirt simple (catchy slogan, right?). The site features campsites located on dreamy private land where tents are already set up and ready for you when you arrive. Pitching a tent? Someone’s already done it for you. This is more glamping (glamorous camping) than camping and appeals to the Millennial aesthetic—some sites come with hammocks, firewood and other amenities—and philosophy of just showing up for the party, as it were. Tentrr also offers curated experiences, such as morning yoga with a certified trainer or energy healing sessions with a Reiki master.

For Millennials the great outdoors is more like the great outside. According to the Outdoor Industry Association, research conducted by global design firm IDEO found that many Millennials view the outdoors as something that starts at their front door and is part of everyday life. Jill Levinsohn, IDEO’s team leader for the Outdoor Retail of the Future Project, stated as far back as 2013 that for the Millennial generation, you have to rethink “outdoorsy” as “outsidesy.”

Sure, 18 to 35 year olds are keen to get out there and breathe in all that fresh air and maybe do a little hiking, mountain biking or kayaking, but they want to do it surrounded by friends and family. Indeed, 44% of Millennials are planning to go on family trips in the next two years. Introducing kids to nature and the outdoors is just as important to Millennial parents as is introducing them to new cultures and experiences.

“We’re seeing that once these younger campers experience the outdoors and the benefits of camping, they become hooked on it and it becomes part of their lifestyle,” says KOA’s COO Toby O’Rourke. “As parents bring their children along, we’re already seeing their love of camping being passed on to the next generation.”

Camping has become a social activity, and not just social as in, “Let’s bring the whole family and a bunch of friends” but as in “Let’s document every aspect of this experience on social media.” Unplugged camping? Yes please, said no Millennial ever. KOA is redesigning some of its nearly 500 campgrounds across North America to give Millennials what they want, and that includes Wi-Fi in addition to onsite activities like canoeing and fishing. No big surprise there. After all, about half of Millennials say that while on vacation they check in on Facebook (57%), they post updates on Twitter and other platforms (51%) and they share photos on Instagram (43%) every day. Some do all of the above hourly. 

Connect with nature? Sure, as long as they can connect to a signal. Millennials are probably able to “get out there” more often now that campsites offer technology access. Those three quarters who said they check text messages (77%) and email (71%) on the reg can do so to check in at work from the comfort of their own tents.  

That’s not to say that Millennials aren’t discovering, along with good reception, the emotional and physical health benefits of time spent outdoors. According to 2018's KOA report, Millennials in particular say that camping has a great deal of impact on reducing stress, contributing to their emotional well-being and fostering a healthier lifestyle.

Do a quick search on Instagram for #camping and you’ll turn up more than 14 million tagged posts while #NeverStopExploring (The North Face’s popular tag) and #OptOutside result in more than 12 million and eight million, respectively. It won’t take too long to find posts of bright-eyed and bushy-tailed campers roasting marshmallows around a campsite or a gaggle of friends on their mountain bikes riding through an evergreen forest.

In today’s heated political landscape, when Democrats and Republicans seem to agree on very little, many Americans are turning to the outdoors as a place they can go—together—to calm the mind and heal the soul, to rebuild strained relationships. If there is one thing Americans can agree on, is the transformative power of the outdoors.

This is an excerpt from The 2018 Future of Millennial Travel Report, a blueprint for the next decade of North American travel. It can be downloaded for free on the Resonance website.