CARAVAN SALON DÜSSELDORF, the leading trade fair for the caravanning industry, opens today (28 August to 5 September 2010) in Düsseldorf. In ten halls, 580 exhibitors from 26 countries are presenting the world's largest range covering all aspects of mobile holidays.

“The demand from the exhibitors was great so that we were able to register moderate growth”, explained Joachim Schäfer, Managing Director, Messe Düsseldorf, at the opening press conference. “Of the total of approximately 135 European caravan and motor home brands, 120 are represented here in Düsseldorf, in addition all the renowned accessories companies and all the manufacturers of basic vehicles are here. As a result, we have the market almost completely covered”, Schäfer went on to say. The spectrum of the vehicles presented extends from mini-caravans for a motorcycle up to the luxury travel motor home, in addition there are accessories and destinations. Over the next 10 days the organizers expect around 160,000 visitors at the Exhibition Centre.

Klaus Förtsch, President of the Caravanning Industry Association (CIVD), explained in Düsseldorf that following the difficult year of 2009 the caravanning markets are now stabilizing much quicker than expected, while the German caravanning industry is growing once again. “Up to the middle of the year the industry recorded turnover of 2.42 billion Euro; that is 246 million or 11.3 percent more than at the same point in 2009”, Förtsch explained. In particular, sales of new caravans rose, in fact by 26.2 percent to 1.23 billion Euro. Sales of caravan and motor home accessories also increased to 248 million Euro (plus 12 percent). In contrast, the second-hand caravan market has declined: the Germans invested 940 million Euro in second-hand leisure vehicles (decline of 3.7 percent). Registrations of new motor homes rose in the first half of 2010 by 4.3 percent, at the same time only 4.4 percent fewer caravans were registered. Production and exports also developed positively. +

The caravanning market in Europe levelled off in the first half of 2010 at 95,000 new vehicle registrations. The Europeans registered 50,907 new caravans (2009: 51,973 vehicles) and 44,456 new motor homes (2009: 43,744 vehicles). This means that the European market has remained stable. Germany is the number-one motor home country in Europe: 12,433 new motor homes were registered there in the first half of the year. At 10,209 newly registered caravans, the German caravanning market takes second place behind Great Britain.
Over 10 million Germans would like to go on holiday in the next three years with a motor home or caravan. This was revealed by a representative caravanning tourism study, commissioned by the Caravanning Industry Association at the beginning of the year. According to this study, interest in caravanning since 2002 has risen by over 60 percent. “There are four times more people interested in caravanning than there are active participants. Our task is to show interested parties how relaxing, diverse and comfortable a caravanning holiday can be”, says Hans-Karl Sternberg, Managing Director of the CIVD. “To test caravanning you need a long weekend with the motor home or caravan. And for those people who don't know anybody they can borrow a leisure vehicle from, it just takes a few mouse clicks on the Internet to find the national hire companies.”
Particularly popular are trips to Norway, Sweden and Denmark, but also travel to Eastern Europe. Within Germany Schleswig-Holstein, Bavaria and Mecklenburg Western-Pomerania are right at the top of the wish list.
www.caravan-salon.de

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