Hands-on vehicle technology: Hobby trains its Asian retail partners in the plant

Fockbek, November 2016 – Practical service seminars where domestic and foreign retail partners are trained directly in the plant by experienced experts have a long tradition at Hobby. Employees of German and European retail partners are regular guests in Fockbek to familiarise themselves with the technology of the caravans and motorhomes – above all with the numerous new and further developments. This ensures that every specialist company is up-to-date with the technology and can expertly support its local customers, such as where repairs or installing accessories are concerned.

Camping and caravanning are becoming increasingly important in Asia too. The network of Hobby agencies there is growing continuously. Which is why proprietors and employees of our Asian retail partners took the opportunity this autumn to find out about leisure vehicle technology in a three day service seminar and acquire practical knowledge in this area. The focus of this training was always on the extensive practical part. On two days, the seminar participants had the opportunity to carry out service work and repairs on caravans and motorhomes in the in-house workshop. During these workshops experienced technicians and fitters from Hobby-Wohnwagenwerks communicated how to handle the materials. They were also available to answer all questions concerning electrical, plastics and vehicle technology. Recently, controlling devices and functions on the leisure vehicles via Wi-Fi using a smartphone or tablet has also been on the list of subjects in the service seminars – technology that thanks to the “MyHobby App” and the innovative network “HobbyConnect” has been available to all Hobby customers since very recently.

Alongside Chinese and South Koreans, representatives from Mongolia took part in the Hobby Service Seminar for the first time this autumn. “Mongolia is still a really new market for us,” says Stefano Bonometti. The Italian Hobby general importer is responsible for distributing Hobby motorhomes and caravans in South Korea, China, Taiwan and Mongolia. “Caravanning is becoming increasingly important in these countries,” explains Bonometti and he adds: “Camping and caravanning is a really exclusive form of holiday there. It’s an expression of a special lifestyle and thus has high status. Also, the target group is much younger than ours in Europe.”

The type of camping holiday is often a bit different too. Alongside the possibility of making an individual tour with a leisure vehicle – as is usual in Europe – there are also camping parks in China and South Korea where you check in like in a hotel to spend your holiday there.