The development of solo travellers is clearly visible in the bookings at Goboony, the largest European sharing platform for campers. In 2019, it recorded only a tight seven percent of 'vanlifers' who wanted to go on an adventure alone. In 2024, this figure will already fluctuate around twenty percent. The majority are women, over the age of 45.
The interest is mainly in the smaller camper vans. With a maximum length of around five metres, these offer the ideal size to go on an adventure alone. For 2025, Goboony predicts a further increase in these solo travellers, up to a quarter of the total number of bookings.
The segment of holidaymakers who travel alone with a camper is female, almost sixty percent, as can be deduced from the reservations of Goboony. The 45-plussers are overrepresented in this (around 76%). Incidentally, these are not only people who are single in life. Many consciously leave their family or partner behind for a solo adventure. "At Goboony we embrace freedom as a core value and it is precisely that freedom that also appears to be the great motivation for solo travelers to take the camper alone," says CEO Mark de Vos. "Traveling alone with a camper means determining your own course, discovering new paths and above all deciding without compromise." As a result, the online platform of Goboony is also increasingly paying attention to solo vanlifers. For example, the compact camper vans have recently been separately visible on the landing page, under the name 'mini-campers'.
Confirmation of global trend
The trend of solo 'vanlifers' aligns with the global trend of more and more people going on vacation alone. This was recently confirmed by research from ABTA , the English equivalent of the ANVR (Holiday Habits survey, 2024). This showed that, particularly among those in their mid-thirties and forties, the number of travelers going on solo trips is already around 23 percent. The popular TV format *Onderweg naar Liefde*, which aired recently, also confirms the popularity of 'vanlifers' going on adventures alone. During the series, viewers followed the experiences of single campers looking for a partner during their travels. In this program, travel primarily took place in regular holiday destinations. This is also evident from Goboony's figures. Travel destinations for solo travelers hardly differ from those for people traveling together. The Netherlands ranks first, followed by France, and then Germany and Belgium.
Source and more information: www.goboony.nl