The Dyrt Study: What It's Like To Camp Today

Above, the Cortez, Colorado KOA Kampground. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

There are studies looking at pretty much every aspect of modern day lifestyles. That also includes vacationing and camping.

RV Travel has posted an article on a study by The Dyrt on what it's like to camp today. Some findings are, as the article says, disconcerting.

The article begins with:

The Dyrt, a rapidly growing website and mobile app, is possibly the country’s most comprehensive platform for the camping public—which means, in turn, that The Dyrt’s users may comprise the country’s broadest demographic profile of the camping public. So when The Dyrt’s users have their temperature taken, it pays for other industry participants to take notice.

But first, some context. The Dyrt has listings of 44,000 public and private campgrounds and “other properties” that accept RVers and tenters. Last year the site pulled in more than 27 million visitors, more than doubling its 11.8 million visitors in 2020. More than a million of those visitors have been sharing tips and reviews on the site, and this past December, 3,000 of them—selected at random—responded to a far-ranging questionnaire about themselves and their experiences. An additional 2,000 respondents, chosen to be census-representative by age, race, gender and region, also were questioned, by two third-party organizations.

The result, released earlier this month, is the statistically most meaningful picture of what it’s like to go camping in America that the industry has produced to date. Some of its findings are by nature unsurprising—it’s their size or extent that may catch your breath. Other conclusions are disconcerting, to say the least.

To read more, go here.