Memorial Day Camping To Top 2021 Numbers

Above, the main street of Columbia, California in the Mother Lode country in the 1980s. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Back in the "old days", I would take the family up to the Mother Lode gold rush area of California for a Memorial Day weekend of camping in Columbia. We would stay each year at the Marble Quarry RV Park.

That was before the crowds got bigger and traffic worse on the highways and I was much younger as well.

Since then, I have chosen to stay at home and leave the driving to others. 

It looks like, despite high fuel costs, more people will be hitting the road this year for Memorial Day weekend camping.

According to RV Travel:

Kampgrounds of America’s North American Camping Report for April is predicting there will be 22.2 million households camping over Memorial Day weekend (May 28-30) and the recently completed Canadian Victoria Day weekend (May 21-23) combined. That’s a 5.4% increase over the same holiday weekends in 2021.

In addition to more campers (40% versus 39% in 2021) saying they plan to camp for the long weekend, many suggest they will add additional days to their camping plans. Three-in-10 say they will stay an additional day or two before or after the long weekend, a slight increase from 2021 (6%). The numbers in the monthly report include all campers, not just campers at KOA parks.

To read more, go here. 

New Campers Flooding RV Lifestyle, Some Already Unhappy

Above, The Beast at the Elk City, Oklahoma KOA. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

"You can't please everyone."

This had been true when this saying was first coined (whenever that was) and it is still true today.

The saying is especially true when it comes to new campers who have flooded the RV lifestyle during the past two years of the pandemic and even before. 

RV Travel has posted an article on who comprises "new campers" based on a study by Kampgrounds of America (KOA). 

They begin with:

By now, you’ve likely read a lot of stories regarding the sudden influx of “new campers” into the RVing lifestyle. You also know the usual list of reasons newbies give … pandemic-driven RV purchases, the need to reconnect with family and friends, more available savings … but just who is this “new camper?”

Last week, we reviewed the top-line results from Kampgrounds of America’s annual North American Camping Report. The annual research paper gives one of the best views of what’s going on in camping and RVing, and it’s worth a deeper dive.

Here’s what the report had to say specifically about the new influx of more than 9.1 million families into camping and RVing in 2021:

To read further, go here. 

2021 North American Camping Report Finds 2.6 Million New Camping Households

Above, my friend Mitch became a first-time RV owner last year. We traveled to Colorado last
September with his trailer. This was taken at the Cortez, Colorado KOA. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Regular readers of this blog are aware that there is a boom in RV sales (well, I've discussed it enough) and the following report should not come as a surprise. Most of them are first-time RVers.

Kampgrounds of America, Inc. (KOA Kampgrounds) released its report titled "2021 North American Camping Report" and it confirms what I and other have been reporting.

Its findings are now posted at RV Travel.

It starts with:

Kampgrounds of America Inc. just released its 2021 North American Camping Report, and it confirms what most recreational vehicle owners already knew – there are a lot more new RVers out there.

The North American Camping Report is a scientific survey of the trends and habits of campers in the U.S. and Canada. Kampgrounds of America Inc. has been commissioning the survey report every year since 2014. (Full disclosure: This writer was one of the authors of the report between 2014 and 2020 while the Vice President of Communications for KOA). Nearly 4,000 surveys were completed in January 2021 for the Report.

The 2021 edition of the North American Camping Report found that the proportion of first-time campers grew five-fold since 2019, and the number of households that now own an RV grew by 2.6 million. More than 86 million U.S. households now consider themselves campers, and 48 million of those households took at least one camping trip in 2020 – up more than 6 million over 2019.

To read more, go here.