Camping drives record overnight stays in Waging am See

Camping demand has reached record levels in Waging am See, with the resort recording 418,325 camping overnight stays in 2025, BR reports. Camping accounted for around 85 percent of all overnight stays in the town.

The trend is also visible at Strandcamping Waging, a 36-hectare campsite on Lake Waging. It offers around 650 pitches for caravans, motorhomes and tents. Although the main season has normally ended by September, the campsite remains almost full, including pitches farther from the lake.

According to Chiemgau Tourism, around 170,000 camping guests visited the Chiemgau region in 2025. Together, they spent more than 806,000 nights at campsites.

Camping overnight stays in Waging am See have risen noticeably since 2019, when the figure was around 327,000. It reached almost 378,000 in the first coronavirus year of 2020, declined temporarily in 2021 and 2022, and began rising again from 2023.

Moritz Seehuber, deputy operations manager at Strandcamping Waging, said demand had increased significantly in recent years. Many guests valued camping as an informal way to spend time outdoors and with their families without having to follow hotel schedules.

The guest profile has also changed. Young families travelling in converted vans or motorhomes are now common, Seehuber said. Christina Quehenberger from the Salzburg region, who has already visited Waging more than ten times this year in her camper, said she enjoyed getting up, putting on comfortable clothes and having breakfast outside. Her coffee machine travels with her, too.

At the same time, campers’ expectations are rising. Many guests now consider good sanitary facilities, Wi-Fi, restaurants and shopping opportunities essential. Bookings are also being made at shorter notice. A good weather forecast can keep the campsite’s phone ringing, Seehuber said, while forecasts of prolonged rain lead to more cancellations.

The increase is not limited to Waging. Bavarian campsites recorded around 2.9 million arrivals and 8.6 million overnight stays in 2025, according to the Bavarian Tourism Ministry. Both figures were 3.3 percent higher than the previous year.

Nationwide, the Caravaning Industry Association reports around 56 million overnight stays at campsites and a further 20 million at motorhome pitches. It estimates that caravan tourism generates almost 23 billion euros in turnover.