Camping Trade World – Issue 06

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STUART LAMONT INDUSTRY VIEWS Stuart Lamont CEO of Caravan Industry Association of Australia Camping Industry Association of Australia CEO, Stuart Lamont, took some time out to talk to us about caravanning and camping in the country, including the opportunities ahead, challenges which need addressing, consumer trends, the rise of Chinese imports, and what the national industry association is doing to benefit industry. F ■or those that don’t know, could you please give a quick, general outline about the Caravan Industry Association of Australia (CIAA) and the work that it does? Australia is set-up in very defined states and territories, and we have a federal government, so we have three tiers of government. From where we (the Caravan Industry Association of Australia) sit, we are a federated body, and we only have ten members – our well-formed state caravanning associations, which deal with local issues on the ground and the day-to-day stuff. From the CIAA perspective, we are the sole voice to do with anything federal – whether that’s compliance, federal laws, insurance and so-on, we have an important relation to what that looks like. We have a very compartmentalised organisation, but we carry out several main activities. The first 44 | www.campingtradeworld.com
INDUSTRY VIEWS STUART LAMONT one of those is research – we have developed a very strong research and insights team over the last five or six years, which underpins everything we do from a marketing, compliance, and advocacy perspective. The second activity is compliance and accreditation – we run a comprehensive accreditation programme from a manufacturing perspective. We audit and inspect product at manufacturers, at dealers and at shows and exhibitions. We have seen a decline in compliance issues of about 40 per cent over the last three years, so we see that the education through audit process is highly valued with great outcomes. Lastly, and I guess quite unusually for a trade association, we market the industry. We have a very strong consumer stimulus role; we have databases of some 900,000 people with an interest in caravanning and camping that we regularly talk to. This also allows us to survey the market. It’s quite hard not to talk about COVID and the pandemic with any business conversation – how did it pan out in Australia for the country and the camping and caravanning industry? I think it’s been a blessing and a curse. Australia as an island locked itself off from the rest of the world so that has been quite advantageous for our industry. We are a country of travellers, and so the inability to go overseas and our other main competition of cruises also being offline, people have looked to substitute and enjoy domestic holiday options such as camping and caravanning. But those things have always been part of the Australian psyche anyway – when I was growing up, you went to school, you got a qualification, got married, bought a house, you’d work in a job for 40 years, and then you’d retire, get a caravan and spend the rest of your life touring around Australia. It’s very fondly thought of, so we already had a great foundation before COVID. Even notwithstanding being one of the most locked down countries in the world, with the inability to travel within our own borders at times, some of our caravan parks have never done better. Our vice chairman has been in the industry for 30 years and he’s never seen it as good as it is now. By and large, we are somewhat embarrassed when we go and have a conversation with tourism recovery – we are doing better than almost any other sector in the Australian economy from a tourism perspective. The curse side of it comes with some of the transit parks – a lot of international caravanning journeys in this country can be long, so www.campingtradeworld.com | 45
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Page 5 and 6: CONTENTS 16 22 26 48 58 BASECAMP 06
Page 7 and 8: BASE CAMP grow and I wanted to make
Page 9 and 10: BASE CAMP MOVERS AND SHAKERS The wh
Page 11 and 12: BASE CAMP CRUEL COVID BLOW FOR CMT
Page 13 and 14: AROUND THE WORLD 03 FINLAND The mar
Page 16 and 17: GERMAN STUDY THE DETAIL Study shows
Page 18 and 19: EHCT - 10 YEARS THE DETAIL A decade
Page 20 and 21: SOG ANNIVERSARY THE DETAIL Scandina
Page 22 and 23: TENT TECH ARMS RACE THE DETAIL Phot
Page 24 and 25: TOURISTIK & CARAVANING THE DETAIL P
Page 26 and 27: AUSTRALIA DOING BUSINESS WITH... DO
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Page 32 and 33: SUPERSPRINGS INTERNATIONAL COMPANY
Page 34 and 35: e-RV WINNEBAGO Photos © Winnebago
Page 36 and 37: AL-KO COMPANY PROFILE The growth of
Page 38 and 39: AL-KO COMPANY PROFILE ▲ More than
Page 40 and 41: GROW YOUR BUSINESS Grow your busine
Page 42 and 43: LIONTRON COMPANY PROFILE Give your
Page 46 and 47: STUART LAMONT INDUSTRY VIEWS ▲ Ca
Page 48 and 49: AWNINGS SECTOR SPOTLIGHT Photo: Isa
Page 50 and 51: AWNINGS SECTOR SPOTLIGHT Photo: Out
Page 52 and 53: AWNINGS SECTOR SPOTLIGHT BUSINESS C
Page 54 and 55: SEO BECOME A BETTER BUSINESS BECOME
Page 56 and 57: SEO BECOME A BETTER BUSINESS quick
Page 58 and 59: MAKING CONTACT PRIMUS FIRESTICK Swe
Page 60 and 61: MAKING CONTACT MERCEDES-BENZ EVITO
Page 62 and 63: MAKING CONTACT SAWIKO TRIGO-VAN CAR
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Camping Trade World – Issue 06

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