Market SWITZERLAND
Swiss boom! After three consecutive years of growth, the recreational vehicle market in Switzerland experienced a spectacular boom in 2021 which led it to become the fourth biggest market in Europe for sales of new motorized leisure vehicles
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he Swiss motorized RV market recorded peak sales of 8,457 units in 2021, and 1,144 of which were in March. This progression does not seem to be stopping this year, with 2,064 new leisure vehicles registered in the first quarter. These statistics describe a non-stop growth since 2009, when 1,575 motorized units were sold. Since then, the caravan market has grown slightly, while the motorized one has grown almost sixfold, with only two marginal setbacks in 2013 (-2.0%) and 2018 (-1.1%) compared to increases of 36.1% in 2011, 19.7% in 2019, 25.8% in 2020 and 26.4% in 2021. According to insiders, such as Chris-
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toph Hostettler, President of Caravaning Suisse, the Covid-19 pandemic played an important role in doubling sales in the last three years. It prompted many families to choose the safety of a confined and highly controllable environment to eat and sleep for holidays, instead of stays in hotels or renting summer houses. But the market had already doubled in numbers between 2010 and 2016, with the greatest number of sales concentrated during the period between March and July, the main holiday periods. With a population of around 8.5 million people, in 2021 Switzerland showed the highest ratio between sales of recreational vehicles and residents.
The number of people staying in Swiss campsites and overall overnight stays is rising, but not with the impressive percentages of “new purchases” of liesure vehicles. The most accurate statistics stop at 2020 and describe a growth of about three percent compared to the previous three years, with a significant prevalence of local tourism compared to foreign guests. The 396 Swiss campsites, are distributed with a certain regularity throughout the country, but the largest number are in the cantons of Bern, Valais, Grisons and Vaud. The average period of each overnight campsite stay for Swiss tourists was 3.3 days per stay, compared to 2.7 days for foreigners
