Article Suggesting Folks Will Be Curtailing Their RVing.

[traveldawg]

RV Business magazine released an article today titled "RV Lifestyle Details ‘RV Travel Difficulties Predicted for 2023’. They provided this link to the RV Lifestyle full article.

It makes for interesting reading. Their attention grabber is something like "...Big RV Travel Difficulties are being predicted for 2023 by real RVers, with many saying they will either sharply curtail their travels or stop entirely....". First they list some results for a survey as to why folks will curtail their travel, then it goes on to describe some surprises some first timers had. I don't think any of those surprises to those first times would surprise anyone who has RV'd for a while.

I'e highly recommend this reading for newbies as well as the rest of us. My take away is still that RVing is not for the faint of heart. I'll be out there again this year.

These were the top 5 distractors according to their survey. They were:

1. High Fuel Prices
2. Campgrounds
3. Inflation in General
4. RV Repair Challenges
5. Bad Roads

There were several other RV travel difficulties mentioned, like too many rude campers, bad quality from RV manufacturers, high interest rates, bad or slow Internet speeds making remote work from the RV difficult, and not enough EV charging stations....

[xrated]

These were the top 5 distractors according to their survey. They were:
1. High Fuel Prices............That just means I'll be travelling closer to home and finding new adventures in my own back yard....so to speak
2. Campgrounds........I'm guessing that means the CG prices are likely to be more expensive, which will factor into how many trips we take
3. Inflation in General.........Definitely a factor, but there are ways to plan ahead and take into consideration
4. RV Repair Challenges.......fortunately, I'm fairly good with mechanical and Electrical stuff.......and Youtube is my friend if I don't know
5. Bad Roads.......I'm sure they are out there, but not much any of us can do about that other than reroute and/or take it easy when encountered.

[geotex1]

I read that article too, and another great tell is how many major YouTubers that made our long secluded subculture into mainstream trendy are coming off the road... Also huge decrease in so-called "master classes," a name that gets in my crawl regardless of industry or market because those given them are far from a master of anything they're trying to teach, have taken a cliff dive. In my neck of the woods, dealers have plenty of inventory and I'm utterly bombarded with sales-related contacts even though we have had ZERO dealer interactions since 2019. The bubble has burst, the shine worn off, and all the airlines believe this year will be the major return to destination vacations.

[Walaby]

I, for one, look forward to more RVers getting off the road.

Mike

[trailrydr]

I mentioned this in another thread, but, it makes one wonder about "the new baby/COVID smell wearing off".

[FT4NOW]

I think it's great, if enough RVers that started because it was trendy or whatever the case get off the road, maybe it will force CG prices to come down some.

[Scott'n'Wendy]

Hmm. Article is a stretch. Maybe for those that thought RV'ing was always camping 5 feet from the lake shore, or out overlooking some mountain vista all by yourself with nothing ever breaking and no issues on the road.
For the rest of us only #1 has changed significantly and it is always changing. Back in 2008 when we did a trip to DC/Virginia beach, diesel was $4.25 a gallon, and Cherry Hill CG was $52/night - 14 years ago. Didn't stop then, won't stop now. IMO, the only thing that will stop us from RV'ing is health or mobility issues. And hopefully that's a long way off yet.

[Steven@147]

Thanks for the article. I guess I have mixed feelings about the issue because over the last 2 years we are having the time of our lives and very happy!

* My first thought, if people are trying to fulltime RV, travel and sight see on a shoe string budget, or with large fuel swallowing diesel or gas RVs, or just living on SS, don't plan very well, only want to stay in State, COE, Local parks for the cheaper rate up to 2 weeks, or live in California, they probably are not going to be happy.
* Groceries, eating out, I track our costs pretty close, yes it has gone up but we find ways of reducing the costs for groceries, but eating out is our achilles heel.
* Campground rates /availability- rates have gone up, especially close to major attractions, tourist dollars. Right now here in Galveston we are staying at a KOA (Holiday or Journey can't remember) very nice place, their rates did go up from last year but, we are here for 3 months and the rate works out to $26 per night and we don't pay electric. Just down the road at Jamaica Beach RV, very popular place, their rates are about the same. That's cheap in our book and plenty of availability. Florida in winter, yup that's going to be full and expensive.

* State, COE, Local Parks, yes, people flock to them because they are very cheap and it would be very hard to get accommodations on spur of the moment or even future planning. We don't use them much.

* RV repair, wait times - oh this can be huge, it could be a real nightmare if you can't fix things yourself or refuse to do things yourself.
* Fuel, yes it hurt this summer and fall. Our good friends drive a motor home and in the middle of the high prices it cost them over $700 for fill ups. Their toad is a jeep. We put in way over $100 per fill up several times in our truck this year. But just the other day it cost $45 to fill our truck from 1/2 tank that used to be $75 during the high prices.
* Bad Roads, well we put on over 12,000 miles this year and didn't run into that many bad roads, except I70 in Indiana, terrible. I guess it depends on where you are driving.
* Internet, It's not that big of a deal for us.

Just my .02

[Ynot4me2]

I doubt CG prices will go down (prices rarely do) but it would sure be real nice to go back to the days where you didn't need to reserve 5 years in advance. Our spring 3 week trip is already fully reserved (7 different CG), same with our summer trip and we are already starting to plan our fall trip. CG were already filling up. We rarely stay more then 3 days at the same stop and rarely go back to a spot we've been before (there's so much to see). Not needing reservations all the time gave us flexibility to stay an extra day or 2 if the place was worth it or pack up and move on if it wasn't or if repairs or required. Those are the days I'd like to see again.
Gas prices hasn't stopped or slowed us yet. But then again, we don't tow 20,000 miles per season either. Maybe once I'm retired or fully remote.

[ajg617]

Hmm. Article is a stretch. Maybe for those that thought RV'ing was always camping 5 feet from the lake shore, or out overlooking some mountain vista all by yourself with nothing ever breaking and no issues on the road.
...
Back in 2008 when we did a trip to DC/Virginia beach, diesel was $4.25 a gallon, and Cherry Hill CG was $52/night - 14 years ago. Didn't stop then, won't stop now. IMO, the only thing that will stop us from RV'ing is health or mobility issues. And hopefully that's a long way off yet.

Agree. Interesting because I'm wondering if this is kind of like customer service centers - all they ever get are calls from those with issues.

For our part, our two long trips last season were destination trips to attend family weddings. When I heard what our in-laws paid for airfare, hotel with no food on site, and a rental car we were even in price point. They stayed for a week and we were out for over a month each time. It isn't cheap to travel/stay by any mode.

We are visiting our daughter (no RV) later this month. Round trip diesel fuel/toll costs are less than airfare and I don't need to rent a car at gouge prices.