A survey conducted by RVIA revealed new insight into RV owners, including a trend toward shorter trips and a state park preference.
Less than one-third of new RV owners took tips more than 300 miles in length, the survey showed. Instead, 54% of new buyers took trips under 200 miles. RVIA stated the preference to stay closer to home added to the interest in state parks and recreation area campgrounds. RV resorts, private campgrounds and national park sites trailed “slightly behind” in the results.
The 800 completed surveys were done online via an outbound solicitation sent to a cross-section of U.S. residents via online panel sources. RVIA noted surveys were were sent to a statistically balanced group to ensure representation from key demographics, including age, gender, income and ethnicity.
“When we looked at the motivations for purchasing an RV over the past year, we found the reasons were the same as they had always been for buying an RV: the love of road trips, a desire to travel in comfort, wanting to explore the great outdoors and the ability to use an RV as a basecamp for other outdoor recreation activities,” RVIA President and CEO Craig Kirby said.
The desire to be outdoors and participate in outdoor recreation was important, RVIA noted. Fishing, hiking, mountain biking and water recreation activities topped the list of activities new buyers participated in while RVing. The desire to explore and use an RV as a “basecamp” for other forms of outdoor recreation was listed as a primary purchasing reason.
“While many new buyers reported the pandemic did have some impact on their decision to purchase, the survey results showed ‘restriction on other travel due to COVID’ came in fourth from the bottom of the list,” Kirby said. “This really shows that people did not buy RVs over the past year because there were not any other options, they bought RVs because of the endless opportunities RVing provides to travel and get outdoors.”
