Airstream RV vacations are the trending topic of the year. The number of newly registered Airstream RVs has reached a record level, and space is slowly becoming tight. Mutual consideration is more important than ever.
Of course, the corona pandemic has once again increased interest in vacationing in the home on wheels, but the sales figures of Airstream RVs have risen sharply in recent years. With more than 55,000 new registrations in Germany alone in 2019, it is clear that the parking space capacities are sometimes reaching their limits in the high season. This is especially true in cities and regions that are particularly attractive for tourism.
Because although the number of Airstream RV parking spaces has increased significantly in recent years, currently there are around 4200, "the number cannot quite keep up with the enormous growth in the number of Airstream RVs," says Marc Dreckmeier, spokesman for the Caravaning Industry Association (CIVD). Then there are the camper vans sprouting like mushrooms, private and commercial, who are also writing record-breaking figures in 2020. Therefore, it was evident that we have less space and have to show a greater degree of consideration, patience, openness, and social skills to live a relaxed, uncomplicated togetherness.

Even if, with the increasing numbers, there are many newcomers to Airstream RVs who certainly do not know some of the written and unwritten rules or are overwhelmed with one or the other finesse of their vehicle: The emails and forum posts that reach us clearly show that some of the complaints are aimed at beginners, but also that some "old hands" cause displeasure.
Biggest problem: selfish behavior
Right at the top of the ruffle list: disrespectful, selfish behavior. "Dieselreiter," writes in the pro mobile forum: "Among those who behave indecently, it is not the beginners who worry me - you give them a hint, they thank you and do better from now on. It is the 'experienced stubborn heads 'that you can't talk to. "
Roland Burgmeister from Berlin, with whom we talked during our photoshoot on the new campervan parking lot in Heidelberg, reports something similar: "Of course there are people who mistake a parking space for a campsite and first set up the charcoal grill, get the six-pack out of the fridge and Turn on their boom box. They are then explained in a friendly manner that 'camping behavior' is not possible in every place and that particular consideration is necessary, then it will work. I am more concerned about the older people who buy a luxury vehicle from airstream interstate dealers for a lot of money and behave like Count Snot from the Cheek. "

But who are these "elders" who seem to be partially out of the ordinary? If you look at the buyers of Airstream RVs in the upper price segment, we speak of best agers, age 55 plus, dynamic, active and enterprising. As soon as the children are out of the house and maybe life insurance is paid out, they want to fulfill their dream of independence.
Marc Dreckmeier also confirms this from the CIVD: "A baby boomer generation is an essential group of buyers. They have the necessary funds, have more free time, and love to travel in many cases. We know that many buyers say to each other: I've had the whole Seen the world, I've been to America and Africa, but I hardly know my own country. "
It is hard to imagine that these are the people who forget overnight how a garbage disposal works appropriately or park inappropriately close to the demarcated neighboring space so that the open space in front of their mobile device increases. Because the same applies to some "experienced stubborn heads," people who have opted for this type of holiday for 30 or 40 years, which stands for independence, flexibility, and closeness to nature, but then pour the pasta water into the bushes on the pitch or the Do not pick up "mines" from your dogs. "The freedom of the individual ends where the freedom of the other begins," Immanuel Kant already knew.
Deputy sheriff on the pitch?
What was recognized a quarter of a millennium ago shouldn't be so difficult to implement today. So is it all a social problem? In any case, Birgit Klare writes in a letter to the editor: "I don't see selfish behavior as a particular problem for campers but as a mirror of society. Much is changing, is becoming faster, more impersonal, and one's own experience and well-being are becoming increasingly important the focus. I even think that many don't even notice that their behavior is disturbing others. We'll probably have to live with that. "
Anyone who delves deeper into the subject will just as quickly come across those who speak of the emerging block guardianship. Walter Förster, for example, describes it in an email to the editors: "The 'uncomplicated' inherent to camping is increasingly being lost. There are more and more people who would like to forbid everything and dream of a vacation as a deputy sheriff."

The promobil forest "Frankenstein" has a similar feeling. He writes: "How good those present belong to the minority who are disturbed in their relaxation and sense of order by the majority, who cannot or do not want to behave. In my experience, there are also mobile allotment gardeners who are extremely careful about compliance with the 'unwritten laws' - which probably only exist in your head - of Airstream RV travel and are constantly upset about the others. That could come from Watzlawick's 'Instructions on Unhappiness.' "
From old hippies and allotment gardeners: If you read through the various forums, blogs, and Facebook groups, you can get the impression that there are only two types of characters among Airstream RVs: the ones who always want to leave the church in the village and to chill outcall - and the others who would prefer to regulate their vacation life clearly, ideally with a printed, binding set of rules. How about a good middle ground? With respect, consideration, and tolerance, zest for life, love of freedom, and laissez-faire can continue to be lived out. As an alternative, there are restrictions on the complete form of travel. Then all are losers.