South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Interest in RV travel spikes 162% in pandemic
A lot of Americans will be traveling around in their new RVs this spring and summer or renting them from popular outlets such as RVshare and Outdoorsy.
Interest in RVs has spiked 162% during the pandemic, according to data from LendingTree.
By comparison, interest in boats rose 104%, and interest in cars and lot trucks dropped 26%.
June 2020 saw a 303% year-over-year increase in the number of people completing purchase query forms for RVs compared with June 2019. The most popular states for RV purchases were Vermont, Delaware and Maryland, which each saw interest in RV purchases spike more than 270%.
The popularity of RV travel is driven by the feeling of safety it provides U.S. travelers.
Harvest Hosts found that
76% of respondents to its recent travel survey said they plan to travel more in
2021 than they did in 2020, and nearly 60% said that they plan to travel more than they did in 2019 before the pandemic.
That leaves RVs as one of the most popular options for getting around this spring and summer. According to Harvest Hosts, 99% of total respondents said that they felt safe traveling in an RV, and 53% of total respondents said they planned to exclusively travel using RVs in 2021.
Remote working is another key that is driving Americans to travel more this year than they did in
2020 and in 2019.
RV trips tend to be longer and cover a lot of miles, and motorhomes offer flexibility for travelers.
Of people planning to travel by road, 61% plan to travel more than 500 miles, and 34% plan to travel moderately far, within
100-500 miles.