Brits are seeking to recapture the retro vibe of holidays gone by with the humble caravan emerging as the accommodation of choice for British summer holidays with sales of caravan related goods skyrocketing as the summer holiday approach.
eBay UK has also sold more than 480,000 ‘caravan’ related items in the past three months with 4,649 caravans currently listed on site; from a state of the art gold plated Eriba on sale for a cool £1 million to a classic 1964 Airsteam Globetrotter for £16,500.
Those who have sold on eBay for more than a decade may remember the eBay Pulse feature (retired in 2012) which used to reveal the hottest selling items on eBay. Caravan was for a decade the most popular search term and it was only ousted from it’s pinnacle as the most searched term when the iPhone came along.
Brits are staycationing
More than two thirds of the 2,000 Brits polled by the online marketplace are planning a UK holiday in 2018, with over a third saying they’d prefer to holiday on home shores than venture abroad. What’s more, one in four families will be planning a six-day caravanning holiday in Cornwall this Summer and are set to spend £19.8 billion and a combined 108 million days ‘staycationing’ this year.
The research, also revealed that 83% are planning to travel by car – Cornwall, Devon, Yorkshire and the Lake District listed as the most popular destinations.
One in three parents say they prefer to holiday in the UK rather than abroad, citing that they are easier with kids, cheaper and more convenient as the main reasons for choosing to staycation. And one in five said they chose to holiday in the UK so they didn’t have to take the family on an aeroplane.
It is clear Brits are mixing the retro cool with the new this summer as they go hi-tech with their packing, as research from eBay.co.uk1 shows that 70% of modern staycationers see the smartphone as their ‘must pack’ item. Smartphone sales over the past three months surpassed 290,0001 – that’s 3,250 sales every day – as Brits turn the traditional staycation into a ‘smartcation’ with added tech.
Meanwhile the style and tech items we list as ‘staycation essentials’ in 2018 are in stark contrast to the old school outdoor kit we packed in the ‘90s, which included beach balls, cool boxes and the classic Walkman.
Staycation essentials |
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With 13 million families set to holiday in the UK over the next six months, 2018 is set to be the year of the staycation.
“Our research shows that 2018 is the year of the Great British Staycation. It seems that parents are looking to recreate the memories of their childhood with their own kids but bringing their UK holiday bang up to date with the latest tech, kit and holiday accessories.”
– Murray Lambell, Vice President of UK Trading at eBay
Ultimate Staycation Survival List
To celebrate the Great British Staycation 2018, eBay UK has created the Ultimate Staycation Survival List. If you sell these types of products then consider sticking up a few eBay Promoted listings or using eBay’s other marketing tools to highlight your products and get the sales rolling in:
- Smartphone – number one essential item for a family staycation
- Tablet – a distraction for the journey and entertainment for the entire holiday
- Lazmac inflatable lounger – upgrading your camping chair with the latest in camping comfort
- Chilly bottle – upgrade the traditional thermos flask with this season’s must have
- Personal Sunshade – for those who don’t want to share their shade
- All-purpose portable kitchen – perfect for the chef in the family
- Solar lights – use the power of the sun to light up your camping experience
- High tech sleeping bag – don’t overheat with traditional fillings, choose next gen technology to keep you feeling fresh
- Portable charger – never miss a photo opportunity
- Electric cool box – powered by your car to keep drinks and food at fridge temperature
6 Responses
Campervan with fridge freezer, tv, dvd, wifi, hob, sink with running water and 100w solar panel on the roof to keep the fridge freezer and TV going when there’s no electric hook up. We have solar lights inside and outside the van and in the drive away awning.
Love our camper I work from the van during the summer, it is getting more popular and some sites cost equivalent of budget hotel from depends where you go. So if you have land, there’s money to be made.
Sod caravans and campers
diddling about at 40 mph
Clogging up the highway
Its
A Hotel for us
Air conditioning
Room service
Flushing loo
Bar
Swimming pool
Health club
restaurant
Caravans are a false economy.
`You pay £10,000 for one upfront, if you had the cash you are now losing interest, if you borrowed you are paying Interest.
Like a car it has lost 20% of its value the moment you buy it.
You need to insure it as caravan theft is a common thing.
Every year you have it, it depreciates.
Ether you stick this big ugly box in your garden advertising the fact that you are on holiday when it isn’t there, or you have to pay to store it somewhere.
You can’t tow a caravan with a small economical car, so you have to buy a bigger (larger engines size) car than you would otherwise need, so you have higher road tax and suffer poorer fuel efficiency on your large engined vehicle all year round.
Now you have to tow this monster thing with you at an enormous fuel cost, take it 100 miles and it will cost you £100 in fuel.
Now pay for your stay on a ‘campsite’ + an electric hookup.
Buy the time you have added up all the expense and the devaluation you could have had a nice holiday in a hotel and not have to empty your chemical toilet.
“Meanwhile the style and tech items we list as ‘staycation essentials’ in 2018 are in stark contrast to the old school outdoor kit we packed in the ‘90s”
oh yeah, Sunglasses and ‘Sun hats’ are such new technology, such a STARK contrast to the 1990s.
Really all phones are smartphones now, and phones were essential in the 90s too, along with a charger as the battery life was a lot less.
So the only real difference is a tablet, except by the mid 1990s most people had laptops, which are really just a big tablet.
Do you guys ever read the press releases you reprint ?
Who knew Caravan and camping holidays would produce more passion than the last 10 eBay posts Chris wrote 🙂
It is a different kind of holiday but definitely not cheaper when you work out the caravan + bigger car + all the kit you get convinced you need. Having a tourer and travelling the continent is brilliant and some of the best holidays I had as a child, we also did the 2 weeks all inclusive – again VERY different experiences.
I am not sure what holidays Peter King went on in the 90s but I do not think it was common place for regular Joe’s to be taking their ‘mobiles’ and laptops on holiday with them.
lets be honest watching caravan awning erection is the very best of entertainment
closely followed by caravan reversing and parking