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The News Update is all about getting up-to-speed on the latest RV news that may impact you. We look at various sources and try to boil the news down to a few main items to review. First up…
Traditional forms of travel continue to be hit hard…
TSA checkpoint numbers are showing air travel is recovering very slowly but has actually been hit again lately. The past four weeks 2019 vs 2020 saw 71.2M vs 17.7M travelers (25.0%) trending down this past week. The latest week has seen a strong uptick of issues which seems to be hitting air travel adversely again.
Meanwhile new and used inventory on RV Trader continues to decline. There has been a 21% decline of new and used RVs for sale since May 20th (from 156k to 123k). While there are plenty of RVs still available, the drop shows a strong increase in demand.
Travel Restrictions
July 15, The Associated Press is reporting that the U.S., Canada and Mexico plan to extend agreements to keep their shared borders closed to non-essential travel until Aug. 21.
Campendium Open Status as of 7-17-2020
- As of 7/17/2020, 9.10% of U.S. based campsites listed on Campendium.com are closed, down from a high of 46% in late April.
- One out of fifty state park campgrounds systems are currently closed, have delayed opening, or are open to state residents only: New Mexico
My Take
Since our last news update late June, we’ve done two multi-day trips to two different Michigan state parks, Ludington and Yankee Springs. If you follow along on Instagram, you have had a good taste of those trips already. Both campgrounds were almost completely full, even on the Sunday to Friday trips taken.
For the Ludington trip, social distancing was implied but not enforced. The bathhouses were open without any real restriction (we didn’t use them), and other than state workers wearing masks, a large majority of campers really acted like there were no issues.
Often kids, who make friends easily with other kids in campgrounds, were busy having fun and visiting campsites without hinderance. Unfortunately, both Ludington and Yankee Springs are like parking lots in terms of the closeness of sites one to another, which really doesn’t deter interactions.
My take is that if you do go camping, be aware of your surroundings and stay a good distance from neighbors unless you wear a mask. There is still a real risk with what is going on, so plan on using your own facilities or camp where there are fewer people nearby.
GAOA Passes the House
The Senate passed the GAOA and this past week the House has passed it. As a reminder, the act funds the backlog of park maintenance up to 9.5 B over five years funded by exploration on public lands. The president plans to sign it into law.
Hyundai Porest Camping Car
On to more RV news, Hyundai is entering the RV market…
The Korean Herald reported in early July the new Hyundai camping car called the Porest – a combination of Porter and Rest. I watched a couple of YouTube videos from Asian PetrolHead where he took the camping car out. The new camping car, which is built on a small truck platform, looks good, with all amenities as expected, including a very cool smart bed feature. Korea has seen a five-fold increase in camping cars in the past five years, and certainly Hyundai is well-timed putting this new, what we would call a Class B, in the market given recent events.
The camping car starts at the mid-$40k area and goes up to around $70k fully optioned. While not cheap, it is extremely well priced when comparing to some established Class B RVs like Leisure Travel or Airstream.
The bigger deal is if Hyundai decides to come to the U.S. with something like this (with a name change hopefully), given their immense manufacturing capacity, focus of quality, practicality and pricing. If Hyundai does get into RV manufacturing state-side, what ancillary effects would that produce?
Recently a viewer asked me where he could get an RV with the quality and price point of a Toyota. I had to answer that I didn’t think there was anything like this available. Should large car manufactures see the trend to RVs and enter this market, this potentially could change. Source: Twitter – @HMGnewsroom
All the best in your camping endeavors!
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