Near the reception, the freshly repaired automatic barrier is back in service. The first vacationers have settled in for the Easter weekend, under the pine trees of the Kergo campsite in Ploemel (56), halfway between Auray and the port of La Trinité-sur-Mer. A smooth start to the season for Breton campsites whose activity continues to grow, as pointed out by Nicolas Dayot, the president of the national federation of outdoor hospitality (FNHPA): “In 2025, in Brittany, campsites recorded 14.5 million nights, while 15 years ago, it was only 8 million.”
This year, given the Easter holiday schedule, we will have to wait a few more days and the start of the Bretons’ holidays for a true restart. The chosen date by the Mané Guernehu campsite, located near the Gulf of Morbihan in Baden, to welcome its first vacationers.
Twenty-five years of growth
“Next weekend, we are expecting around a hundred arrivals, around 500 people,” says Jean-Marie Madec. With his two brothers, he represents the third generation leading this five-star campsite. XXL water park, restaurant, bar, grocery store, and even an equestrian center: its facilities testify to the rise in quality of the campsite, a trend not unique to Brittany. The SME with around fifteen permanent employees will employ nearly 100 people at the height of the season.
For Nicolas Dayot, the recipe for success is maintaining the client base—mostly popular and from middle-class backgrounds—for 25 years, along with attracting clients looking for comfortable accommodations. This new clientele spells investments but also a decline, year after year, in the number of bare pitches for tents and caravans, in favor of mobile homes.
Tents or caravans as a compromise
As the primary form of collective accommodation in Brittany, will campsites benefit from tourists shifting their focus to France in the context of the Middle East conflict? Spring often sees last-minute bookings as the norm. And in summer, “we are still in a wait-and-see situation for those who had planned to go abroad,” according to the president of the outdoor hospitality federation. In campgrounds, reservations are generally at the usual level.
