{"id":53717,"date":"2025-07-04T13:47:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T20:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engage.gov.bc.ca\/bcparksblog\/?p=53717"},"modified":"2025-07-04T13:47:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T20:47:10","slug":"camping-styles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engage.gov.bc.ca\/bcparksblog\/2025\/07\/04\/camping-styles\/","title":{"rendered":"Camping Styles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Home<\/a>\n \n Camping Styles\n <\/span>\n
\n <\/div>\n <\/bcgov-breadcrumb>\n\n\n

Camping Styles<\/h1>\n
BC Parks News<\/a>, <\/span>Design Research<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n
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Who camps in B.C.? Camping Styles help us get to know our visitors<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s virtually impossible to optimize services, digital products, and policies for users when you don\u2019t know who your users really are. Though we have been speaking directly with visitors for several years, we wanted to learn more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, who are the people who visit parks and recreation areas? What motivates them to get outdoors? And what is their experience when they get there?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this post, we share what we learned from about 75 conversations with a variety of visitors. These learnings have shaped a set of user types that we call Camping Styles. Camping Styles have become a valuable tool for teams across our organization to use when making decisions that impact our visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Camping Styles are (and are not)<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Camping Styles are inspired by Thinking Styles<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea for Camping Styles came from Thinking Styles<\/a>, a method developed by strategic researcher and author Indi Young. It is a way to dig beneath behaviours and preferences to understand users on a deeper level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Camping Styles are visitor archetypes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They shine a light on the different ways people approach their camping experiences in B.C. They help us understand how campers think, their emotional reactions, and personal rules for camping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Camping Styles are based on research<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are not fictionalized characters. We created them by finding patterns in what real people told us about how they think, feel, and approach their camping experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Camping Styles help us empathize and understand<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are a tool to help us expand our idea of who campers are and what they need. This is especially useful when making decisions that impact visitors directly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Camping Styles are not demographics<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Camping Styles do not divide along lines such as age, gender, ethnicity, or physical abilities. Each style includes people from a variety of demographics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Camping Styles are not rigid<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One person does not always equal one Camping Style. People\u2019s Camping Style can change depending on context. For example, if one weekend you\u2019re out in the backcountry alone, and the next weekend you are car camping with a big group of friends, it\u2019s likely that you are a different Camping Style on each weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Camping Styles are not perfect<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Camping Styles are designed to evolve as we learn more about our visitors. Our current styles represent what we know so far, but as we talk to more people, the styles will change along with our knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meet our Camping Styles<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From our conversations we have uncovered six distinct Camping Styles, and we\u2019ve (hopefully) given them memorable names.<\/p>\n\n\n\n