Families Searching for Cheap Vacations in RVs
Wed Mar 24, 2010
Author: Kevin Haas
Source: RRSTAR.COm
LOVES PARK — Camping isn’t just a fun vacation for Penny Tague and Neal Williams of Oregon. It’s the most sensible one.
“It’s a cheap vacation,” Williams said, especially with three kids.
“You can stay at a campground for a long weekend for less than $200, where you might spend that with a hotel room for one night,” Tague said.
They were two of thousands of people due to move through a three-day RV and camping show at the Indoor Sports Center this weekend. The show concludes Sunday.
Tague and Williams were getting ready to buy a smaller, pop-up trailer for their summer camping trips.
Smaller, less expensive trailers that use less gas have been more popular with consumers during the recent economic slide, said Lisa Flanigan.
“Even if the gas goes high, people will still travel, they just won’t go as far,” she said. “This is the cheaper way to go because you’re not paying the hotel rates, you’re not going out to eat all the time.”
Holiday Hour RV handles towable models, which Flanigan said has been the company’s “blessing in disguise” while the motor home industry has taken a hit in recent years.
RV manufacturers shipped about 14,000 motor homes in 2009, the industry’s worst showing in the 38 years data has been collected, according to a report in Reuters. That’s a 50 percent drop from the 28,300 motor homes shipped in 2008 and an 80 percent decline from 71,800 in 2004.
But things have been looking up early in 2010. Winnebago Industries, a leading manufacturer, posted its first quarterly profit in about two years, Reuters reported last week. Flanigan has seen improvement, too.
“Last spring I don’t think we sold six campers by the time March rolled round,” she said. “This year we’ve been really busy. ... We’ve already had a good spring.”
The RV show features about 100 vehicles from eight different dealers and as many as 15,000 people are expected to attend, according to event coordinator Brenda Rotolo.
“This is the third show this year we’ve had in this building, and each has had a great turnaround from last year,” Rotolo said. “When boat dealers are all selling boats and RV dealers are selling RVs, it’s a sign that everything is turning around.”
