Article created for the December digital issue of
The 2023 holiday season is expected to be one the busiest on record, with 122 million people planning to travel between Thanksgiving and the New Year. Of those travelers, 20 million are planning to go RVing this holiday season, a 30% increase over 2022, according to the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association (RVIA).
Darren Schulte, NATSO’s vice president of membership, said RV travelers are often an untapped customer base. “If RVers aren’t on your radar, they should be,” he said.
RVers, like truckers, need fuel, food and parking near major highways. “Locations offering dump stations, fresh water, laundry and propane have unknowingly already done the hard work to attract RVers, so be sure to capitalize on it,” he said.
TVIA said that 55% of RVers plan to take a trip within three hours of home. Millennials are more likely to stay closer to home this holiday season, with 61% planning a trip within 3 hours, while 43% of Boomer respondents said they are planning trips more than 16 hours from home.
The RV Industry Association Holiday Travel Intentions Survey found that the top reasons people plan to go RVing are the love of road trips, the desire to travel in comfort, interest in exploring the great outdoors, the affordability of RV travel and because they want to travel with their pets.
More than half of RVers—60%—said they plan to bring their pets with them rather than boarding them over the holidays. Of those traveling with pets, 87% will travel with at least one dog and 52% will travel with at least one cat.
To learn more about attracting RV traffic, check out these posts:
- Eleven Tips and Tricks to Capture Booming RV Traffic
- 14 Things RVers and Recreation Travelers Need on the Road
- RVers are Hitting the Road and Truckstops Have What They Need
- Eight Ideas to Help Draw Summer Traffic Into Your Truckstop or Travel Center (many of these apply to winter traffic, too!)
// This article was created for Stop Watch magazine, the magazine of the NATSO Foundation. The NATSO Foundation is the research, education and public outreach subsidiary of NATSO, Inc. The NATSO Foundation provides programs and products to strengthen travel plazas’ ability to meet the traveling public's needs through improved operational performance and business planning. Visit www.natsofoundation.org for more information. (Donate to the NATSO Foundation here.)
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