Nasher
Free Member
We have had a many posts about how we think councils should do more for us motorhomers and how much benefit we are to local traders, the local economy, etc.
So it got me wondering just how significant we are?
I started thinking (dangerous at my age) about numbers, some of these I got from the web, others are guestimates based on information gleaned – if anyone has good information about average occupancy & number of days motorhomers spend in them in the UK I would be happy to revise these ramblings. Also, I got thrown out of school at 15, so if anyone on here can do maths, please check my workings!
There are around 250,000 motorhomes in the UK and currently growing (but for how long?)
Average occupancy say 1.5 people per van (many couples, many singles and some families)
That would equate to 0.568% of the population of the UK or less than 6 in a 1000
If you increase the average occupancy to 2, that would equate to 0.757% of the population (less than 8 in a 1000)
For comparison an estimated 9.6% of the population ski/snowboard & 2.2% play bowls
Now, if we were to look at Motorhome usage and say that they are used on average 100 days per year (lots of full timers, but equally many working people with MH in storage – so I think this figure may be too high) and of that 50% of days used are outside of the UK - That would mean an average of 0.078% of the UK population motorhoming at any one time in the UK with an average occupancy of 1.5 (that’s less than 8 in 10,000)
If we were to increase the average occupancy to 2 then that would equate to 0.104% for 100 days per year in the van (again assuming 50% of time spent away is outside of the UK) just over 1 in a 1000
Now these are just simple equations & averages and there are potentially many other factors that you could take into account (motohomers from overseas, vans used as a motorhome but not registered as a motor caravan, tourist destinations, seasonality, if the UK was more ‘motorhome friendly’ etc.) But no matter how we look at it, motorhoming is pretty small beer, although for many of us on here it’s the only thing in the world that matters (and why not)
As for spending in the local economy, there aren’t many of us and I suspect that a lot of ‘local’ spending is done with national/international companies (supermarkets, pub/restaurant chains, etc.) so if no one motorhomed we would just spend the money closer to home with the same company! (for example, me buying a Greggs steak bake & diet coke in Swindon instead of my home town, is not going to make much difference to Swindon’s local economy or Gregg’s regional sales figures – but YUM!
All this leads me to realise that those people who invest their money & time (and there are some on here) in providing facilities for us motorhomers are enthusiasts & certainly not in it for the money!
I would even go so far as to suggest that the only way to make a small fortune out of motorhomers, is to start with a large fortune
So it got me wondering just how significant we are?
I started thinking (dangerous at my age) about numbers, some of these I got from the web, others are guestimates based on information gleaned – if anyone has good information about average occupancy & number of days motorhomers spend in them in the UK I would be happy to revise these ramblings. Also, I got thrown out of school at 15, so if anyone on here can do maths, please check my workings!
There are around 250,000 motorhomes in the UK and currently growing (but for how long?)
Average occupancy say 1.5 people per van (many couples, many singles and some families)
That would equate to 0.568% of the population of the UK or less than 6 in a 1000
If you increase the average occupancy to 2, that would equate to 0.757% of the population (less than 8 in a 1000)
For comparison an estimated 9.6% of the population ski/snowboard & 2.2% play bowls
Now, if we were to look at Motorhome usage and say that they are used on average 100 days per year (lots of full timers, but equally many working people with MH in storage – so I think this figure may be too high) and of that 50% of days used are outside of the UK - That would mean an average of 0.078% of the UK population motorhoming at any one time in the UK with an average occupancy of 1.5 (that’s less than 8 in 10,000)
If we were to increase the average occupancy to 2 then that would equate to 0.104% for 100 days per year in the van (again assuming 50% of time spent away is outside of the UK) just over 1 in a 1000
Now these are just simple equations & averages and there are potentially many other factors that you could take into account (motohomers from overseas, vans used as a motorhome but not registered as a motor caravan, tourist destinations, seasonality, if the UK was more ‘motorhome friendly’ etc.) But no matter how we look at it, motorhoming is pretty small beer, although for many of us on here it’s the only thing in the world that matters (and why not)
As for spending in the local economy, there aren’t many of us and I suspect that a lot of ‘local’ spending is done with national/international companies (supermarkets, pub/restaurant chains, etc.) so if no one motorhomed we would just spend the money closer to home with the same company! (for example, me buying a Greggs steak bake & diet coke in Swindon instead of my home town, is not going to make much difference to Swindon’s local economy or Gregg’s regional sales figures – but YUM!
All this leads me to realise that those people who invest their money & time (and there are some on here) in providing facilities for us motorhomers are enthusiasts & certainly not in it for the money!
I would even go so far as to suggest that the only way to make a small fortune out of motorhomers, is to start with a large fortune
