EVEN when travel returns, the pandemic will still be part of our reality, could Dream Drive provide the flexibility and self-sufficiency that will get travellers on the road again? Jared Campion, the founder of the start-up that won WiT Singapore’s Start-up Pitch 2020, believes it can.
But he’s not idling while waiting for inbound to rebound. Instead, Campion has spent the pandemic building capacity in key areas that he believes will help Dream Drive come back stronger.
The 2020 winner was originally conceived to build and manage campervans for travellers to take on road trips to “unlock Japan”, says Campion, continuing “we want to build Japan as the next big RV destination – it’s got the four seasons, it’s got the great roads, it’s got hot spring bath houses, a lot of people are coming back to Japan for the second, third, fourth time, looking to get off the beaten track.”
Camping – in tents – is also traditionally popular among locals and visitors, Campion tells me that it’s a huge industry in Japan, “manufacturers of tents have gone really deep on building massive kitchen outfits with like linkable tables and chairs and everything. And all this packs away in people’s cars and then they unpack it. So, to me it’s like a gateway towards RV and campervan travel.”
Add to that the growing interest and glamourisation of Van Life, and Campion should have had a winning model. Unfortunately, as Campion observes, “people in Japan famously do not have long vacations”, so even though they still see weekend rentals, the two-and-three-week bookings that were part of Dream Drive’s revenue stream mostly disappeared along with inbound visitors.
That partly prompted the change of gears, says Campion, “we’re focused now on building and selling vans, which is good, I feel, because now we’re better at producing vehicles quicker, and the quality is up… when the time to build vans comes if we’re getting a lot of inquiries, or if our rental fleet is filling up again, we can always add more vans quicker.”
With the strength of the Japanese automotive industry, it only made sense to Campion that “there should be a campervan builder from Japan,”, especially since a lag in supply of campervans is one of the main problems industry wide. “A lot of the manufacturers are one year or two years behind on delivering orders, which is why we realised we had to build.”
In addition to campervans, Campion is also building networks, having started a road trip association for Dream Drive and other campervan rental companies and even rental car companies, with the goal of “creating a movement” around driving holidays as a way to experience Japan.
Of course, getting people driving is one thing, but they also need somewhere to drive to. The association also works with regional prefectures around Japan to help them package their locations for travellers.
Campion sees content creation as an important part of that, telling me “A lot of that is working with them to create content, and plans of like, where do you want people to stay; what local shops and restaurants do you want promote, and hopefully that’s something we can package more with travel agencies as well when things open up again.”
Finally, Dream Drive is also exploring partnerships with hotels to package itineraries that leverage existing infrastructure, for example, tying up with a boutique hotel chain which also offers pick-up and drop off services, travellers can pick up campervans in one city and drop them off in another, and while they are in the city, they can stay on property.
All this, Campion believes puts Dream Drive in a strong position for when borders open. He is confident that once the company rides out the pandemic, the mechanisms developed during covid will allow them to quickly scale, both in campervan production, and the rolling out of content and itineraries for new destinations.
Already, interest is returning for month-long bookings for this Winter.
Travel trends post Covid have skewed emphatically to a preference for nature and the outdoors, and after months cooped up indoors, the freedom of the open road beckons alluringly.
Campervan travel also provides a further two things which travellers will want post Covid – flexibility and self-sufficiency.
Since it’s difficult to predict when and how infections might breakthrough, travellers will need to be prepared to change their itineraries. “A camper van makes it a bit easier for them to adapt wherever they go,” Campion says, so even if “certain cities get locked down, at least they have accommodation, and they have transportation. So I’m hoping it will give people a lot of flexibility to think ‘Okay, if I get a ticket and I get a dream drive, I’ll be fine. But if I tried to book a whole itinerary of say one month that’s tricky when my plans might change’”.
And at a time when travellers may also want to avoid being in crowded places, the self-contained “tiny home” experience offered by a campervan may be the answer that reticent travellers need to finally get back on the road.
* Jared Campion will be speaking at the WiT Travel Roadshow Episode 6. Register here.
* Submit your entry for the WiT Startup Pitch 2021 here.
•Featured image credit: Jared Campion/Dream Drive
