Here at Alton, we’re always striving to better understand you, our community, and the outdoor industry at large.
So in February 2024, we asked you some questions… a lot of questions, actually… to get a better idea of who YOU are. What you’re into, how you do it, and why it matters to you.
And the results were pretty interesting.
There were some things we saw coming, but there were a few results that surprised us, bringing up more questions than answers.
But that’s all a part of the fun, right?
In today’s blog, we’re going to be unpacking the results from our 2024 Outdoor Participation Survey and spilling the tea on what you had to say about all things adventure related.
Drumroll, please…
2024 Outdoor Participation Survey Results
Part 1: Respondent Demographics
First up, we have to give a MASSIVE shout out to all the legends who took the time to complete our survey! You’re the real heroes here.
So who are you?
Well, the vast majority of survey respondents were males, aged between 25 and 54 years old.
Just over 50% of you are married or defacto, and 53% of you have kids.
In terms of where you live, about 30% of you are based in NSW, 25% in VIC and 20% of you are in QLD, with the rest of the states making up much smaller percentages.
Part 2: Your Outdoor Participation Habits
What are your preferred outdoor activities?
We asked you how often you participated in a wide range of outdoor activities, then, in order to determine which activities were the most and least popular, we compared the overall number of participants in each category.
Hiking came in first place as the most popular outdoor activity, with only a tiny 4.6% of you saying you NEVER go hiking.
This was followed by 4WDing and off-roading in second, then canoeing, kayaking and rafting in third place.
Hunting and fishing and bushcraft and survival were very closely tied in fourth and fifth position.
A hefty 56% of you said you NEVER go trail running, putting this outdoor activity in last place with the lowest participation rate.
But, of the 879 of you who do go trail running, about 40% of you are doing it monthly or weekly. That’s dedication right there!
What shelter do you use for camping?
The most common shelter option was a tent, followed by a swag and then a tarp.
However, the survey revealed that a lot of you rotate through a few different shelters rather than always sticking to the same one.
So you might use a tent for camping more often than you use a hammock, but you’re happy to switch things up when the conditions are right.
And in case you were wondering about the shelter option used the least, it was glamping & luxury accommodation, with only 3% of you reporting that you ever use it.
Campsite choice
When it comes to where you camp out, you showed a clear preference for state or national campgrounds and wild or free camping.
To give you the numbers, over 48% of you said you often camp in state or national camping areas, while 35% of you said often go for wild or free camping.
On the other hand, only 13% of you often use private campgrounds, and just 7% of you often camp in caravan parks or holiday parks.
But why? To understand this, we also asked you what is important to you when choosing where to camp.
The top five most important factors when choosing where to camp overnight were:
- Scenery and natural beauty
- Solitude and lack of crowds
- Challenge and adventure
- Remote wilderness location
- Cost and affordability
This explains why you have a preference for wild camping or national/state parks.
Wanna take a guess at what was the LEAST important factor?
That’s right – luxury accommodation and experiences. Just a tiny 1% of you rated luxury as an important factor when choosing where to camp.
Who do you share your outdoor activities with?
The survey results showed that the majority of you usually share your outdoor activities with friends or family.
Even so, you’re clearly down for solo adventures, too.
To explain, this was a multiple choice question, so there are a few ways we can interpret the data.
Stay with us, things are about to get a little geeky in here...
When we look at the total responses and compare the results for each category, ‘on my own’ made up approximately 26% of all responses.
But if we look at the results in another way, we find that of the 2,008 respondents, over 55% of you said you go camping on your own.
That’s a higher percentage than any other individual category!
Now remember, this was a multiple choice question. So yes, a big percentage of you said you do outdoor activities on your own, but when we add it all up, we find that an even bigger percentage of you share your adventures with friends and family.
Part 3: Outdoor Participation Opinions
What benefits do you get from participating in outdoor activities?
We can all agree that spending time outside in nature is awesome. But we wanted to go deeper and understand WHY that is the case.
To do that, we asked you what are the most important benefits you get out of doing your preferred outdoor activities.
Out of a wide range of possible benefits, there were two that really stood out; connecting with nature and improved mental health and wellbeing. These two benefits were nearly tied for first position.
Quality time with loved ones came in third place and was followed closely by physical health and fitness in fourth.
The mental health benefits of outdoor activities are clearly a big deal for most of you. In another question, a whopping 97.4% of you agreed that outdoor activities are important for their mental health.
We hope that these results will help us all to be more open about discussing our own mental health, and the ways outdoor activities can help us be happier and healthier versions of ourselves.
If you’re going through a rough patch right now and need immediate mental health support, you can always call Lifeline on 13 11 14. You’re not alone.
What prevents you from participating in outdoor activities? 
Clearly, we all get a lot of benefits from participating in outdoor activities…
So why aren’t we doing more of it? What’s stopping us?
To find out, we asked you what were the biggest obstacles preventing you from participating in your preferred outdoor activities.
The biggest obstacle by far and away was not enough time, with nearly 75% of you selecting this.
Wayyyy down in second place was weather conditions, with about 30% of you choosing this, and in third place was too expensive with 25% of you finding this to be a problem*.
In some follow up questions, an insane 98.4% of you agreed that you would like to spend more time participating in outdoor activities, and 76.9% said work or family commitments are preventing you from getting outside to do these activities as frequently as you’d like. Ouch!
These results make it clear that there’s a BIG gap between how much time we want to spend outdoors, and how much time we actually do.
So now the question is, how do we bridge that gap?
* If you’re wondering about our maths, this was a multiple choice, so you could select more than one obstacle. This is why the percentages we’ve mentioned here equal over 100%.
Part 4: Outdoor Gear & Apparel
How much do you spend on outdoor gear and apparel?
We wanted to see how many of you were gear-obsessed, like us… and turns out that a fair few of you are!
Spending trends revealed that most of you spend up to 1.3x more on outdoor gear compared to apparel across all price brackets.
When we crunched the numbers, we found that over 45% of you reported spending over $1,000 on gear in the last 12 months, while only 31% of you spent over $1,000 on outdoor apparel.
Then figured out a typical annual spend for gear and apparel. We calculated that on average you spent approximately $2,100 on gear and $1,600 on apparel over the previous 12 month period.
What do you look for when buying outdoor gear and apparel?
When it comes to outdoor gear, most of you think quality is more important than price.
To show you the stats, quality came in first at 20.6% as the most important factor when buying outdoor gear and apparel. Next up was price at 16.4%, then durability at 15.7% and performance at 14.9%, all scoring very similarly.
Makes sense, right? There’s no point buying something that’s poorly made or unfit for its purpose. But, as you can see, the cost of your outdoor goods is still pretty important to most of you.
These results suggest that quality alone isn’t enough – you want GOOD VALUE!
We totally get it.
In fact, one of the reasons Sam founded Alton back in 2015 was because he wanted high-quality, lightweight and reliable camping gear that wouldn’t break the bank to buy it – or literally break after a few uses. So he started making it himself.
Today, we’re still a fiercely independent Australian owned and operated outdoor brand. Our priority is creating high-quality, long lasting outdoor products at a fair price – not on inflating profits to the max to line shareholder pockets.
That’s a wrap!
So, what did you make of all that? Any surprises in there for you?
As a final little note, we’d like to remind everyone that the Alton team members who put this survey together are total legends… but they’re not professional data analysts or researchers.
For that reason, although this survey produces some fascinating insights, it’s important to remember that these results don’t necessarily reflect the habits and opinions of everyone. Think of the results here as conversation starters, not concrete evidence.
Thanks again for being a part of our 2024 Outdoor Participation Survey!
