When Roy Wyss took his caravan business to a recent trade show, he hoped to beat his previous sales record of $1.2 million. Instead, he smashed it, selling more than $3 million of caravans over the six days of the show. The stunning revenue haul by Wyss' Sunland Caravans came at the Queensland Caravan, Camping and Touring Supershow in Brisbane in   June."We built a new product, a brand new low-range van because everyone kept telling me that the market was sub-$80,000," says Wyss.So he headed to the show with a couple of the cheaper models (under $80,000), and just one pricier caravan selling for $140,000.. "What shook us to the bone was that we ended up selling only one of the cheaper vans and most of the other orders were on the big SEL-X at $140,000," he says. "We sold 25 at the show, which represents an excess of $3 million."Since then, they have sold another 20 caravans.  
"We are now looking at closer to $6 million worth of sales directly out of the caravan show, which is phenomenal. We are absolutely over the moon," says Wyss.The homegrown caravanning industry is on a roll, with more than 586,000 recreational vehicles (RVs) registered across the country, a 4.5 per cent increase from 2014, according to the Caravan and Camping State of the Industry report for 2015. The great majority (more than 528,000) are caravans.Around 11 million overnight caravan and camping trips were undertaken throughout Australia in 2015, a 7 per cent increase from 2014, according to the report.CEO of the Caravan Industry Association of Australia, Stuart Lamont, says "grey nomads" are no longer the dominant players in caravanning and camping. These days, 64 per cent of such domestic trips are taken by 20 to 54-year-olds. Lamont says the caravanning industry is worth more than $19 billion to the Australian economy. "What is especially great about this is that 90 per cent of all caravanning and camping activity is undertaken in regional areas, meaning we are an important driver of economic activity for small communities and regional towns." Wyss is unfazed by rising challenges from caravan businesses in the on-demand digital marketplace."Actually that's wonderful," he says of the peer-to-peer disruptors such as MyCaravan and Camplify, which provide access to shared caravan hire services. "If they are going to get people trying them out, I think it's going to be beneficial to our industry ultimately. We keep people interested in caravanning, we keep them in Australia, so we keep our dollars here."But unlike other industries struggling to adapt to the new peer-to-peer models, the caravanning industry has an ability to be nimble and adapt product to the needs of the consumer. "As an industry with rich history, we have great diversity and product for all markets which keeps us viable and in demand. I am sure such disruption models will form part of the mix into the future, but how successful they will become is yet to be seen." So, is the appetite for self-guided Australian touring on the increase? "Certainly caravanning and camping is experiencing somewhat of a renaissance period," says Lamont."Accommodation continues to be one of the fastest growing domestic tourism products, growing at nearly 10 per cent, and caravan and campervan registrations continue to be the fastest growing vehicle sector by type (and has been for a number of years now). "In 2015, local manufacturing experienced a record year, having produced the most amount of caravans and campervans in the past 35 years. It's clear that Aussies' appetite for caravanning and camping continues unabated - with a great opportunity for capitalising on international tourist markets."Lamont says international caravan and camping visitors spend an average of $7624, due to the length of their stay - the highest yield on average of any international visitor.Sunland's Wyss, whose caravans are produced in Caboolture, Queensland, says they have seen an increase in young families buying the product."They are actually home-schooled, and they are looking for a family van where they can take the kids with them and travel around Australia. Work-wise, they might do a variety of different things as they are travelling around the country, almost nomadic, dare I even say gypsy-like."