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RV Sales Booming Across the Country
Associated Press, August 12, 2002 NEW YORK - For years, Lou Holtmann meant to take a vacation with his children and grandchildren, but the scheduling "never worked out." After Sept. 11, he decided it was time, and so he bought five recreational vehicles for road trips this summer. "We just wanted to stay closer as a family," said Holtmann, 56, of St. Louis. "There's 20 of us all together, so to fly to a particular spot, stay at a hotel and rent cars would cost significantly higher. And certainly, there were major airline delays that we wanted to avoid." Companies report a surge in RV sales and rentals this year, boosted mostly by adventure-seeking baby boomers unwilling to deal with airline hassles and skittish about traveling abroad. Demand is high for RVs with satellite dishes, washer-dryers, movable walls called slideouts and home offices with Internet access, allowing travelers to hit the road without losing the comforts of home. "Boomers have consistently shown they like to do things on their own terms. It's about control," said Ron Geraci, features editor for My Generation, AARP's magazine for baby boomers. "And frankly, post 9/11, you have less control over your travel than you did before. "Boomers understand that having an RV allows them to travel and really retain an element of control to a greater degree," he said. RV sales were 20 percent higher in the first five months of this year than in the corresponding period last year, according to the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association. The group attributed the rise to lower interest rates and greater interest in domestic road travel after Sept. 11, particularly in the Northeast. Most RV sales nationwide are to boomers, the fastest-growing segment of the RV market. About one in 12 vehicle-owning households, a total of 6.9 million, has an RV, and the median age of owners is 49, according to the association. That's quite a shift from 15 to 20 years ago, when those older than 60 dominated the RV landscape in cramped campers with makeshift furnishings. Now, RVs run the gamut from folding camping trailers priced at $3,500 to fully loaded $1 million RVs about 40 feet long with master bedrooms and bath, closed-circuit TVs, slideouts for additional space and other gadgetry. "Boomers are very big on nostalgia," said John Ables, spokesman for Fleetwood Enterprises, one of the nation's largest RV manufacturers. "They can remember the earlier days when growing up and camping. ... But baby boomers expect the RV to be of better quality and have amenities and appliances they have at home." Winnebago Industries Inc., a leader in the mid-range RV market, plans to expand manufacturing capacity by 30 percent this year after record sales in the first quarter. Fleetwood's wholesale shipments increased 25 percent among its high-end vehicles in the first quarter, while Coburg, Ore.-based Monaco Coach Co. reported a 17 percent jump. RV rentals have jumped 30 percent this year, said Bob Caldarone, spokesman for Mesa, Ariz.-based Cruise America, the nation's largest RV rental company. "Our bread-and-butter renters are the 45- to 54-year-old boomer types," he said. "A lot of folks just aren't taking the long flying vacations to never-never land or down under." FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Action on Aging distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
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