Travel Savvy: The Return Of The American RV Vacation

What's large and self-catering and driven all over? RVs—the new (again) king and queens of the road. While the COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on much of the travel industry, it's turning out to be a boon for the RV industry. Even a coronavirus-imposed manufacturing shutdown lasting from late-March through May couldn't put a damper on America's growing demand for recreational vehicles. 

During the peak virus month of April, RV shipment numbers topped out at a mere 7,197 (compared to a whopping 40,243 in April 2019). Still, the RV Industry Association predicted the industry would be back on top with a rebound come summertime—and they were right. In June 2020, 40,462 recreational vehicles were sent to retailers across the U.S., marking the highest number of tracked wholesale shipments in one month since October 2018, and a 10.8 percent rise in the number of RVs shipped out last June. 

To be fair, RV sales were already slowly rising pre-pandemic; however, many experts believe that current pandemic-specific conditions—like states reopening, closed international borders and tightened travel restrictions, plus growing unease over the rise in U.S. coronaviruses cases—have been a major driving factor in the recent months' uptick in purchases and popularity. The large vehicles, which can cost upwards of $500,000 for a fully-loaded luxury option, provide safe, isolated, self-catering travel capabilities, checking the boxes for many travelers who are both itching to get a change of scenery and weary of traveling because of the ongoing pandemic. 

Check out the full article from Trip Savvy here.