French campsites have never been busier. British tourers are a shrinking part of the reason why.
Official French data shows UK camping nights falling while Dutch, German and Belgian guests keep coming. At the same time, the biggest French operators are pouring money into mobile homes and lodges, not touring pitches.
If your sales pitch for a £60,000 motorhome leans on “tour Europe”, that matters. Let’s break it down.
What the French Numbers Actually Show
INSEE, France’s national statistics office, counts nights spent in campsites each summer (May to August). Its latest figures put nights by UK residents at 4.4 million in summer 2026, down from 4.6 million in 2025. That is a fall of around 4%.
The wider market went the other way. Total campsite nights in summer 2025 rose 3.2% to 124.9 million.
The UK is now only the fourth largest foreign camping market in France:
- Netherlands: 12.2 million nights
- Germany: 9.7 million nights
- Belgium: 5.1 million nights
- UK: 4.6 million nights
Those are summer 2025 figures. Spending in France by UK visitors fell too, down 3% to €6.5bn for January to September 2025, according to Atout France.
Rentals Are Winning the Investment Race
The second trend matters more for anyone who sells touring kit.
Atout France’s barometer for April to October 2025 recorded 149 million campsite nights. Nights in rental units such as mobile homes and lodges rose 6% to 88 million. Nights on bare pitches fell 2% to 62 million.
Let’s be fair. INSEE’s narrower summer count tells a different story, with bare pitch nights up 4.8%.
Look closer and that growth came from French campers, up 9.4%. The foreign touring customer is not the one holding up the pitch numbers.
Follow the capital and the direction is clear:
- Fewer, bigger sites. France has 7,637 campsites, according to the FNHPA, the national trade body. Its president puts the figure at around 9,000 in the early 2000s.
- Premium wins. Four and five-star sites took 61.4% of all camping nights in July to September 2025.
- Groups build rentals. Sandaya grew revenue from €310m to €357m in 2025. It plans €70m of spending in 2026, including around 100 new premium rental units across two newly bought five-star sites.
Rentals earn more per square metre than a grass pitch. For a group answering to investors, the maths is simple. For a British caravanner looking for a good pitch in August, the choice is getting narrower.
Where La Venise Verte Fits
Camping La Venise Verte in Coulon, in the Marais Poitevin, shows what the alternative looks like.
It is a four-star, owner-run site with 84 touring pitches and 33 rental units. That is 72% pitches, the opposite of the group model. The current owners took over in 2019.
In February 2026 it was named runner-up in the Small/Charming category (sites under 150 pitches) of the Caravan and Motorhome Club and Alan Rogers Overseas Campsite Awards. The overall winner was Les Castels, a network of independent sites.
It competes on things that don’t need investor money: third-party labels such as the EU Ecolabel and Accueil Vélo, an on-site restaurant, bike and canoe hire, and direct access to the marsh canals. That is the kind of site British tourers rely on. It is also the kind of site the market is building fewer of.
The Club knows this. It added 36 European sites for 2026, 20 of them in France, taking its overseas programme to over 350 sites in 17 countries. Securing good touring pitches abroad is now part of what a membership is worth.
What This Means for UK Dealers
European touring sells premium vans. Big tanks, solar, lithium and long-range comfort are all easier to justify when a buyer pictures six weeks in France.
That picture now has more friction in it. The EU Entry/Exit System has been fully live since 10 April 2026, which means the 90-days-in-180 rule for UK passport holders is now tracked automatically at the border.
None of this kills the European buyer. It does change the conversation. Three things to do this month:
- Check your website copy. If “tour Europe” is your main reason to buy, add the UK touring story alongside it. Show both.
- Brief your sales team on EES. Buyers planning long stays will ask. A clear, factual answer builds trust. A vague one loses the deal.
- Sell the trip, not just the van. Point buyers to booking routes that secure pitches early, such as club overseas programmes.
Motorhome buyers have another option too. Stock and recommend guides such as Vicarious Media’s Aires France, so customers know where to stop when campsite pitches are full.
What This Means for UK Park Operators
The money British tourers don’t spend in France has to go somewhere. Some of it can stay in the UK.
Pitch-led UK parks should market directly against the overseas trip:
- No ferry booking and no border queue.
- No 90-day clock.
- Peak-season pitches that are actually available.
This fits a shift we have tracked before: buyers want experiences, not just a place to park. La Venise Verte shows a small site can win recognition without a big build budget. Labels, food and an active-travel offer did the work.
The Bigger Signal
French camping is growing. It is growing around rentals and around customers who live closer. The British tourer is still welcome, but is no longer the customer the big groups are building for.
Here’s the blunt truth. UK dealers and park operators can’t change French investment plans. You can change how you sell the dream of touring abroad, and how hard you compete to keep that spend at home.
So look at your own messaging. Does it still assume Europe is wide open and easy? If it does, it’s time to update it.