[Industry] “4+4” rule – the birth and development of Chinese-style camps

RVs and camping originated in European and American countries. Starting from a tent, RVs and other characteristic accommodation units such as wooden houses, tents, and containers are gradually derived. These accommodation equipment are concentrated on a site that has been planned and constructed. Today’s so-called camp. When we travel to Europe and the United States, there are many RVs driving on the road, and we can also see large tracts of RV camps along the way. According to incomplete statistics, in some areas of the United States, people spend 30%-35% of their time in camps. The RV and camping lifestyle is completely a norm in European and American culture.

In recent years, China’s RV and camping industry has gradually started to develop, and some consumers have also begun to experience living life, gradually forming an emerging market that is small in scale but has great potential. However, like other emerging industries, various difficulties and problems have been encountered in the development process in China. At this stage, most camps have not formed a healthy operating state. This is worthy of in-depth summary and reflection by investors and operators.

Wo Wo Group started to enter the camping industry in 2015, and has invested and operated nearly ten camping projects in the past three years. Like other practitioners, it has gradually explored the scientific development of the camping industry, and has also summed up some experiences and lessons, which are shared here. Everyone. Chinese-style camps, that is, camp projects with Chinese characteristics, are the basis for investing and operating camps in China.

“4” principle

As we all know, the birth of a camp is divided into four stages: site selection, planning, construction, delivery and operation. In the whole process here, we believe that there are four basic principles that will continue to run through:

1. Respect customer needs

This sentence sounds simple, but it is often overlooked in the process of implementation. The customers of the camp are natural persons, and the needs of natural persons are actually the needs of the customers of the camp, which are usually divided into five levels of needs: product, service, experience, relationship, and success. These needs will be reflected in various details, such as whether the reception desk of the camp makes customers feel comfortable; whether the activities of the camp cater to the guests’ liking and bring benefits to the guests; Requirements; the scale of the service relationship between the service personnel of the camp ground guest and the guest, etc. It can be seen from the operating data of the Wo Wo camp that there is a close positive correlation between the degree to which customer needs are respected and the resale rate of customers in the camp.

2. Comply with policies and regulations

Like other industries, the construction and operation of camps are subject to the constraints and supervision of relevant laws and regulations. The relevant government supervision departments mainly include: land, environmental protection, housing construction, fire protection, sanitation, public security, etc. Since the industry is still in the initial stage of development, the biggest problems currently appearing are mainly reflected in the nature of land, environmental protection, fire protection acceptance, etc. If these problems are not considered in the early site selection planning, it may bring great harm to the camp owners. investment risk. We have had two failure cases, one is environmental protection, and the other is the nature of the land.

3. Adapt to local conditions

The camp must first have market positioning, such as: leisure vacation, tourist destination, research and education, self-driving routes, etc. A successful camp project must first have accurate positioning, and the first element of camp positioning is the geographical location. This location includes important elements such as the natural environment, cultural environment, location characteristics, and traffic lines. The positioning of the project must be formulated around these objective factors, so as to adapt measures to local conditions. It is often seen that some camp projects in China are done for the sake of doing it, ignoring the characteristics of the project location. Such a hasty approach will often only lead to the stillbirth of the project or the failure of the investment.

Xi’an Bailuyin Hot Spring Camp under Wo Wo is located in the Bailuyuan Bailucang Scenic Area near Xi’an City. In view of the geographical location and the climate characteristics of Xi’an, this camp has been positioned as a leisure and vacation camp in the suburbs of the city from the beginning. The main customers are The middle-class people in the city, so the accommodation units of the camp adopt a courtyard style. At the same time, considering that the local winter weather is relatively cold, and there are relatively abundant hot spring resources underground, the hot spring theme is the main theme, which is a nightmare for the northern camp. Winter has become the busiest season of the year.

4. Rich content

Camps are not hotels, resorts, scenic spots or playgrounds. In China, a camp should be a complex with multiple functions. In addition to hardware facilities such as reception, accommodation, and entertainment, this complex needs more diversified camp content, and these contents are exactly what customers leave behind. motivation. In the process of running a camp, we will design targeted experience content around the positioning of the camp. For example, the Dianshan Lake Leying International Camp in Wowo, in line with the orientation of outdoor sports and education, combined with the surrounding environment and resources, designed 18 kinds of outdoor sports in the camp, 6 major types of curriculum systems and project-based education. The education system, coupled with the basic supporting items of food, accommodation and entertainment in the camp, greatly enriches the content of the camp, thus enriching and colorful the product design of the camp, basically covering research education, parent-child vacation, corporate team building, business Activities and other market segments, thus greatly extending the operating time of the camp, reducing the periodicity of low and peak seasons, and also increasing the price of customer orders.

“4” stage

With the four principles, the birth of the camp began four stages:

1. The first step is about to start with site selection. Site selection actually determines the DNA of the camp. A good site selection decision will lay the foundation for a successful campsite, while a wrong site selection decision will basically doom the project to failure. Camp site selection is a very complicated decision-making process. Wowo mainly adopts a scorecard that combines eleven elements, including natural environment, human flow, transportation, location, investment environment, humanities and other factors. At the same time, the nature of the land in the site selection should also be considered, especially the matching ratio of commercial land, environmental protection requirements, and even whether it will be designated as a protected area in the future. After multi-faceted research, evaluation and prudent research, the final decision will be made.

2. After the site selection is confirmed, start the planning process of the entire project. If the site selection determines the genes, then the planning determines the character of the camp. I believe everyone is familiar with the saying that character determines destiny, so the importance of camp planning is self-evident. I have been to many domestic camps. Frankly speaking, less than 5% of camp owners are willing to invest resources and energy in planning, which is an important reason why most camps in China have poor experience.

The entire planning process actually includes project planning, general planning, detailed planning, and the related process of project approval and construction. Planning first is to solve the problem of camp positioning, and also to determine the general direction for the later planning of the camp. On the basis of planning, according to the characteristics of the camp site and the relationship between the surrounding environment, a more detailed conceptual plan is made. The general plan solves the problems of the camp’s products, business volume, business format, and dynamic relationship, which needs to be repeated. To demonstrate the content of each node in the outline, follow the above four principles to consider each link. With the determination of the general plan, the basic appearance of a camp has been presented, and the next step is the detailed design stage. This is also a deep-water area in the planning stage. The quality of work at this stage directly determines the cost and cycle of subsequent construction, and also determines whether the later operation can be carried out smoothly.

3. After all planning approvals are completed, it will enter the camp construction stage, which is also the longest and most complicated stage, involving budget preparation before camp construction, contractor bidding for various projects, project material procurement, and construction Progress tracking management, camp equipment procurement and installation, project acceptance and final accounts, etc. The shortest construction period of Wowo’s camp is 5 months, and the longest is nearly 3 years, so I won’t go into details here. Just to emphasize one point, at present, in terms of camp equipment, whether it is RVs, tents, wooden houses, containers or amusement equipment, the corresponding domestic suppliers are uneven, and many suppliers who do not have the ability to supply are just pretending to be fake. Be extra careful.

4. After the construction is completed, the hardware of a camp is basically formed, and it is time to configure the software. The first thing to enter is the pre-opening stage. In the pre-opening stage of the Wowo Wo camp, the pre-opening team will enter the site to participate in the closing of the infrastructure, acceptance and handover of completion drawings, etc., configure the camp consumables and other supplies, and debug various equipment. The facility has reached a normal state. At the same time, the recruitment and training of the operation team were carried out simultaneously; as the personnel were gradually in place, the organization structure and management process began to be designed, and at the same time, the camp product design, pricing, and promotion of sales channels were carried out; when everything was ready , started marketing and trial operation, and then after a period of internal trial operation adjustments, gradually improved the standardization and process of services, adjusted the entire product structure to the best, and officially opened for customers. Of course, the operation process itself is a management closed loop of discovering problems-proposing solutions-implementing problem-solving. Only through such a closed loop can the operation and management capabilities of the entire camp be gradually optimized, improved, and enhanced.

We believe that although camping is an emerging industry, as long as we respect these market laws and use correct methods, our investment can still control risks and reap better investment returns. We also believe that camping will become an industry in China in a few years, and many Chinese people will like and enjoy this way of life.