Millennials fueling the RV industry
Prioritizing experiences, they like being ‘ready to go’
Recreational vehicles, long popular among baby boomers looking to spend their golden years on the open road, are increasingly being embraced by an unlikely demographic: millennials.
Young couples in their late 20s and 30s are buying RVs in growing numbers, fueling an industry that for decades relied heavily on retirees. As a result, the average age of an RV owner has fallen to 45, down from 48 in 2011, according to the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group.
“Very few people are waiting until 50 to buy their first RV,” said Scott Byrne, owner of Houston-based Lone Star RV and chairman of the Houston RV Show. “People want to get outside instead of waiting until they retire.”
Local dealers such as Byrne are increasingly courting millennials to drive sales at the 55th annual Houston RV Show, running through this weekend at NRG Center. Some 30,000 people are anticipated to attend the five-day show, organized by the RV Dealers of Texas and billed as the largest indoor RV show in the Lone Star State.
Houston is one of the largest RV markets in Texas, the No. 1 RV market nationally. Last year, manufacturers sent 40,440 of the 483,672 RVs produced nationally to Texas, the most of any state, according to the
RV Industry Association. Texas has more than 550,000 registered RV owners.
Rio and Ashton Cortez drove three-and-a-half hours from their San Antonio home to the Houston RV Show on Wednesday in search of a small travel trailer they could tow behind their Ford F-350 truck. Rio, a 26-year-old Bexar County Sheriff ’s deputy, and Ashton, a 27-year-old stay-at-home mother, were looking to spend $20,000 on an RV they can use to take their sons, Jason, 6, and Noah, 2, out camping and on family vacations.
“With an RV, we can just go,” Ashton said. “We don’t have to rent a hotel. It gives us more flexibility and freedom.”
Millennials, such as the Cortez family, are taking to the outdoors in greater numbers, driving RV rentals and sales. Six out of every 10 millennial households went camping in 2017, and nearly a quarter of them stayed in an RV. Millennials, born between 1981 and 1997, now make up 37 percent of RVers, according to Kampgrounds of America, a national RV park network.
“Video games have run their course,” said Larry Troutt III, the owner and general manager of Topper’s Camping Center in Waller, which sells about 400 RVs a year averaging $27,500 per vehicle. “Being outside is where it’s at.”
Although half of millennials still rent RVs when they camp or travel, many aren’t waiting until retirement to buy one, said Kevin Broom, a spokesman with the RV Industry Association. They want to maximize their RV usage to make memories with family and friends, whether it’s camping, tailgating or road-tripping.
“The millennial generation wants to travel and collect experiences,” he said. “An RV is a great way to have a lot of experiences.”
Some millennials, put off by the rising cost of housing, are eschewing homeownership in favor of living out of RVs and camper vans, giving rise to a lifestyle craze known on social media as #vanlife. With the advent of the Internet, millennials are realizing they can work remotely while they’re on the road, said Larry Coffen with Communitron Management, which owns and hosts the Houston RV Show each year.
“A lot of young people are looking at RVs like tiny houses,” he said. “They’re like fancy condos inside.”
To be sure, oil workers, Gen Xers and baby boomers still represent the bulk of RV buyers in Texas. However, millennials are a growing consumer base, representing about 35 percent of RV sales for Ron Hoover RV & Marine Centers, one of the largest dealers in Texas. The Houston dealer sold 3,000 RVs last year at its dealerships in Katy, Willis, La Marque and Galveston. Its vehicles at the Houston RV Show range in price from $7,000 to $135,000.
“The Baby Boomer market has been great for a long time, but it’s starting to shrink and we have to focus on new markets,” said Joe French, Ron Hoover’s director of marketing. “The millennial market is extremely strong.”
As a result, Ron Hoover brought more vans and travel trailers, popular among younger buyers, to the Houston RV Show this year. Smaller travel trailers, which represent half of all Ron Hoover’s sales last year, include the Taxa Cricket and Tiger Moth, off-road capable RVs designed by a NASA engineer that sell for between $15,000 and $30,000.
Lone Star RV was also showcasing smaller RVs, such as the Hummingbird by Jayco. The 13-foot travel trailer sleeps two people, weighs less than 1,700 pounds and can be purchased for around $12,000. For families with young children, the Houston dealer offered a larger 29-foot Jayco RV that sleeps eight people, priced at around $16,000.
That’s about how much Trey and Deann Moore were looking to spend on their first RV. The Bunker Hill residents took their two boys, 4-year-old Wells and 3-yearold Weston, to the Houston RV Show on Wednesday. Trey, a 43year-old software engineer, and Deann, a 40-year-old stay-athome mother, grew up camping and playing outside in the country, and wanted to ensure their sons had a similar childhood experience.
Deann however, didn’t want her family to rough it outside unnecessarily.
“I don’t want to camp in a tent, so this is a good halfway point,” she said.
“A lot of young people are looking at RVs like tiny houses. They’re like fancy condos inside.” Larry Coffen, with Communitron Management