During A Turbulent COVID-Pandemic Year, Outdoor Recreation Surged Like Never Before

"I need to put in another order for life jackets, ‘cause I’m almost wiped out,” said Mike Chadwick, the owner of Ski World Orlando, to the person on the other end of the phone.

He lamented the life jackets might not even show up until July, if he’s lucky — a story all too common since the pandemic set in. Like other shops selling outdoor recreation gear, Chadwick has been short on inventory, with manufacturers facing supply chain disruptions, while his shop has experienced a huge wave of demand.

The Ivanhoe Village store sells everything from boats and water skiing equipment to paddleboards and snowsports gear. And even though Chadwick’s inventory has sometimes run low, business has boomed amid the spread of COVID-19.

“My sales have basically doubled [since the pandemic began],” he said. “The boat thing was off the charts, it was even higher. If we had inventory, it was gone.”

The surge in outdoor recreation is a trend not just seen in certain sectors or areas of the country, but a nationwide phenomenon that spans multiple industries.

“We’re a $788 billion sector — that’s more than oil and gas, that’s more than mining, that’s more than computer and electronics,” said Lindsey Davis, acting executive director of Outdoor Recreation Roundtable, a coalition of industry trade organizations. “We support 5.2 million American jobs and we’re 2.1% of GDP.”

Recreational vehicles are set up at Topsail Hill Preserve State Park in the Florida Panhandle on Aug. 19, 2020. In May 2020, 46 million Americans said they would travel by RV in the next 12 months.

The data Davis referenced comes from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, based on a 2019 analysis. Core outdoor recreation including RVing, boating, bicycling, motorcycling, ATVing, snow sports, hunting, camping and recreational flying are all included in the figures. The numbers also encompass “other outdoor recreation” including amusement parks, guided tours and concerts, plus spending that supports outside activities through construction, travel and government expenditures.

While outdoor recreation has been growing for decades, the pandemic helped to spur an additional spike in people getting outside to enjoy a range of activities safely in fresh air.

“There’s so much happening that gives people reason to seek the outdoors. Mental health is challenged by the pandemic. People need that reprieve and that break and that fresh air and sanity,” Davis said. “People are turning to the outdoors — some for the first time, some people remembering traditions and reconnecting with the outdoors, some people just home with their families and needing things to do.”

In May 2020, 46 million Americans said they would travel by RV in the next 12 months. A survey later in 2020 revealed that 61 million Americans planned to take an RV trip in the next year. (Patrick Connolly/Orlando Sentinel)

RVs

The recreational vehicle industry, which includes everything from pop-up campers to million-dollar buses, has seen steady growth over the last 40 years but the trend has further accelerated during the last decade.

According to the RV Industry Association, the sector saw more than 500,000 RV shipments in 2017, a record number. The year 2020 was tied with the third-best year on record with more than 430,000 shipments, a remarkable figure when taking into account pandemic-inspired shutdowns.

“Like many industries, RV manufacturing was shut down for six weeks, from the end of March through the beginning of May. So it’s pretty unbelievable that we ended as high as we did,” said Monika Geraci, director of public relations and communications for RVIA. “Our forecast for 2021 is that we will ship 533,000 RVs … This would be a 6 percent increase over the highest year ever and a 24 percent increase over 2020.”

Geraci said that freedom and control of accommodations have always been a draw for RV owners, but that the pandemic has heightened that desire while remote work has allowed more families to travel in RVs.

Camping and Glamping

While RV sales and rentals have skyrocketed, so has the overall interest in camping, with some families taking to tents or finding more luxurious outdoor accommodations with glamping.

The number of camping households in the U.S. now numbers 78.8 million, according to the 2019 North American Camping Report.

It’s not just that more people are interested in camping — recreationists are getting out for more outdoor overnights each year. The percentage of campers who camp three or more times each year has increased 72 percent since 2014, according to the report.

Check out the rest of the article from Orlando Sentinel here.