Kampgrounds of America Inc.

THE CONTINUED EFFECT OF COVID-19 ON CAMPING With the ongoing uncertainty around COVID-19, leisure travel continues to feel the effects. Not so for camping, though. According to the results of this special COVID-19 edition of the North American Camping Report, sponsored by Kampgrounds of America, Inc., camping continues to experience a strong rebound with its ability to meet travelers' desire to experience the outdoors with natural social distancing. Once travelers felt it was safe to resume travel, camping experienced a summer boom with campers taking more trips than originally planned and new campers trying the activity for the first time. Interest in and frequency of camping has increased steadily since the start of measurement through the annual North American Camping Report in 2014 — and increased camping is expected to continue. Across all leisure travelers, camping is projected to account for 15% of their remaining travel for the year, versus just 11% prior to the pandemic. Other means of travel have not experienced this improvement or projected growth in light of the pandemic. While there is still uncertainty around COVID-19, the outlook for camping in the remainder of 2020 and beyond is promising and strong. Some may believe camping is having its moment in the sun, but as millions of North American campers already know – and many new campers found out this summer – camping has long fulfilled people's intrinsic desires and provides a place to reconnect with ourselves and others. For the purpose of this research, campers are defined as leisure travelers who include camping as part of their trips, and noncampers are leisure travelers who don't not camp. Prospective campers are travelers who did not camp pre-COVID-19 but say they are interested in camping. New or first-time campers are those who have indicated taking their first camping trip between May and September 2020. Active Camper Households The incidence of camping improved by four points overall in the U.S. in 2018. The number of camping households in the U.S. grew by 1.4 million, reaching a new high of 78.8 million households. S U M M A R Y O F S U R V E Y R E S U LT S W H O I S C A M P I N G ? G R O W T H I N U . S . C A M P I N G H O U S E H O L D S G r o w t h i n A n n u a l C a m p e r H o u s e h o l d s i n t h e U . S . [ 2 0 1 4 - 2 0 1 8 ] Frequency of Camping The number of camping households that camp at least once each year has grown by nearly 7.2 million households (22 percent) since 2014. Even more impressive, the percentage of campers who camp three or more times each year has increased 72 percent since 2014. The addition of more camping households, coupled with the increased propensity to camp more times each year, has led to a large increase in both the sheer number of campers, and the number of nights camped. 4 T H E 2 0 1 9 N O R T H A M E R I C A N C A M P I N G R E P O R T 7 T H E 2 0 1 9 N O R T H A M E R I C A N C A M P I N G R E P O R T 2 THE GROWTH OF CAMPING AMID COVID-19: A FALL 2020 UPDATE

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