Camping economy ignites a trillion-yuan market

People’s Finance News, March 30—In recent years, as more and more people have embraced outdoor sports and camping as a healthier, more nature-immersive lifestyle, the camping economy is seeing explosive growth. Data show that the number of people participating in outdoor sports in China has surpassed 400 million. In 2025, the core market size of the camping economy reached 248.32 billion yuan, driving an upstream and downstream industrial chain scale of over 1.44 trillion yuan. As temperatures rise, camping, cycling, and outdoor trips are heating up across the board. A group of outdoor equipment companies have also entered their production and sales peak season. Companies are seizing the spring economic opportunity, with both domestic and foreign trade orders staying hot. At an outdoor goods company in Zhonglou District, Changzhou, Jiangsu, workers are rushing to complete a batch of new inflatable tents, which will be shipped to South Korea at the end of March. Orders for this product have already been scheduled through the end of May. With the rapid development of China’s camping economy, more and more domestically made camping equipment has transformed from “cheap substitutes” into “hard-core contenders.” Ding Feng, Section Chief of the Enterprise Management Division at Beilun Customs under the Ningbo Customs, introduced that from January to February this year, the Ningbo port area cumulatively exported 2.45 billion yuan worth of outdoor camping supplies. Of this, tent exports were 787 million yuan, up 12.3%; exports of sleeping bags were more than 40 million yuan, up 19.7%. (CCTV Finance)