Market Follower Strategy
for Camping grounds, recreational vehicle parks and trailer parks (ISIC 5520)
High fragmentation and low barriers to imitation make it ideal for operators to leverage existing industry 'gold standards' in software, booking flows, and base-level luxury amenities established by market leaders.
Why This Strategy Applies
A strategy of following the leader's lead, but adapting or improving their products. Focuses on minimal risk and learning from the leader's mistakes.
GTIAS pillars this strategy draws on — and this industry's average score per pillar
These pillar scores reflect Camping grounds, recreational vehicle parks and trailer parks's structural characteristics. Higher scores indicate greater complexity or risk — see the full scorecard for all 81 attributes.
Strategic Overview
In the highly fragmented RV and camping industry, where local market leaders (often large, consolidated operators like Sun Outdoors or Equity LifeStyle Properties) dictate consumer expectations, a market follower strategy offers a prudent path. By observing the amenity rollouts and digital platform shifts of these national players, smaller operators can minimize R&D expenditure and avoid costly tactical errors. This approach focuses on 'fast-following' successful service models, such as migrating toward glamping-style accommodations or standardized Wi-Fi tiered service architectures, without the risks associated with pioneering unproven concepts in hyper-local markets.
However, followers must ensure they do not merely copy the leader but adapt to the specific regional demand profiles. With high structural competition and sensitivity to economic downturns, followers can capture value by providing identical or improved levels of service at competitive price points, particularly in secondary or tertiary markets where major chains may be slower to penetrate or less responsive to specific local demographic preferences.
3 strategic insights for this industry
Amenity Standardization
Operators can adopt the 'Resort Style' baseline—such as dog parks, pickleball courts, and gated entry—which are now expected due to market leader investment.
Digital Parity as Customer Acquisition
Standardized Property Management Systems (PMS) now effectively define the guest experience; adopting market-standard tech minimizes booking friction and abandonment.
Prioritized actions for this industry
Adopt Unified Booking Tech Stacks
Standardizing with industry-leading PMS reduces integration risk and mimics the seamless guest journey found at major chains.
Implement 'Glamping' Conversion Pilots
Follow market leaders by converting low-margin tent sites to high-margin, pre-furnished 'glamping' units, targeting the premium segment.
From quick wins to long-term transformation
- Implement dynamic pricing software plugins
- Update amenity lists based on top-performing regional competitors
- Renovate existing sites to match tier-one park luxury standards
- Integrate automated contactless check-in systems
- Expand capacity through incremental land acquisition or site densification modeled on proven site plans
- Over-investing in amenities that don't match local demographic demand
- Ignoring local zoning constraints that leaders might have 'grandfathered' rights for
Measuring strategic progress
| Metric | Description | Target Benchmark |
|---|---|---|
| RevPAR (Revenue per Available Site) | Measure revenue generated per site relative to regional competitive set average. | 90-95% of local market leader's RevPAR |
| Booking Abandonment Rate | Percentage of users who start but do not finish a reservation on the digital platform. | < 25% |
Software to support this strategy
These tools are recommended across the strategic actions above. Each has been matched based on the attributes and challenges relevant to Camping grounds, recreational vehicle parks and trailer parks.
Kit
Free plan available • Email marketing built for creators
Industries dependent on gatekeeping intermediaries — retailers, aggregators, or platforms — for customer access are structurally exposed to channel withdrawal; Kit builds an owned distribution channel that survives partner changes and platform restructures
Email marketing platform built for creators and solopreneurs — grows and monetises audiences through automations, landing pages, and segmented broadcasts. Formerly ConvertKit.
Own your audience — no algorithm neededMatched to GTIAS risk attributes — not paid placement. Affiliate link, no cost to you.
Similarweb
50% commission for 12 months • 1,000+ active partners
Web traffic share, market penetration data, and category benchmarks give businesses objective market concentration signals — tracking when a competitor's digital reach is growing into their territory before it becomes structural
Digital intelligence platform providing web traffic analytics, competitive benchmarking, and market share data for any website, app, or industry. Used by strategy teams, marketers, and researchers to track competitor digital performance, measure market concentration, and identify emerging trends before they appear in revenue data.
See competitor traffic before it shiftsMatched to GTIAS risk attributes — not paid placement. Affiliate link, no cost to you.
Volza
Trade data across 209+ countries • 30+ years of heritage
Trade concentration intelligence reveals who the dominant importers, exporters, and intermediaries are in any product category — giving businesses objective market structure data at the supplier and buyer level to understand where concentration risk actually lives in their supply network
Global trade intelligence platform delivering verified export/import shipment data, supplier discovery, and buyer-seller matching across 209+ countries. Backed by 30+ years of trade analytics heritage — used by thousands of businesses and top consultancies to map supply chain networks, identify sourcing alternatives, and track competitor trade flows.
Track global trade flows before your rivals doMatched to GTIAS risk attributes — not paid placement. Affiliate link, no cost to you.
Lodgify
Direct bookings without OTA commission • 7-day free trial
Short-term rental operators are structurally dependent on two or three concentrated OTA platforms (Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo) that control distribution and capture up to 15% commission per booking. Lodgify's direct booking engine breaks that dependency by giving operators their own branded channel — directly addressing the market concentration risk that squeezes margin in accommodation markets.
Website builder and direct booking engine for short-term rental operators. Enables property managers to take bookings direct — without OTA commission — while building first-party guest data, automating communications, and managing channel distribution from a single platform.
Stop paying OTA commission on every bookingMatched to GTIAS risk attributes — not paid placement. Affiliate link, no cost to you.
Other strategy analyses for Camping grounds, recreational vehicle parks and trailer parks
Also see: Market Follower Strategy Framework
This page applies the Market Follower Strategy framework to the Camping grounds, recreational vehicle parks and trailer parks industry (ISIC 5520). Scores are derived from the GTIAS system — 81 attributes rated 0–5 across 11 strategic pillars — which quantifies structural conditions, risk exposure, and market dynamics at the industry level. Strategic recommendations follow directly from the attribute profile; they are not generic advice.
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If you reference this data in an article, report, or research paper, please use one of the formats below. A link back to the source is always appreciated.
Strategy for Industry. (2026). Camping grounds, recreational vehicle parks and trailer parks — Market Follower Strategy Analysis. https://strategyforindustry.com/industry/camping-grounds-recreational-vehicle-parks-and-trailer-parks/market-follower/