The campground and RV industry have seen an economic boom due to COVID-19. 

Many businesses have been struggling in the pandemic, but others have had the best business they’ve had in years.

According to the October 2020 Alberta Tourism Market Monitor on alberta.ca, camping reservations at provincial parks jumped up more than 5,000 per cent. 

Similar numbers were seen throughout the summer. 

Kathy Regehr, the Bridgeview RV Resort manager has seen this increase first-hand, noticing an increase even at the start of the pandemic. 

“In March when COVID first hit, we had all of the snowbirds that came back and needed to quarantine and there were a number of them that were from further up north like Grand Prairie, Fort McMurray and Edmonton. They couldn’t get back home because there was still too much snow, so they ended up quarantining here and then actually staying longer in March.” 

Regehr was concerned with how the season would turn out especially after a busy spring followed by a very slow June. 

“It was an atypical time for us to be busy. It’s in June when we kind of expect things to start picking up, but we were very slow which we were a little worried about, but then in July and August we picked up and we were kind of back to our normal numbers again.” 

There was also a change with who was camping this summer.

“COVID-19 has kind of affected us in a weird fashion, typically we get a lot of Americans that come through going up to the Alaska highway.”

Instead, the increase was from the snowbirds that came up at the start of the pandemic, as well as other Canadians wanting to get away from their home while also socially distanced.  

Business has slowed down again with the colder weather, but Regehr has seen an increase in people wanting to prebook for next season. 

 “I’ve had a lot of phone calls of people already wanting to book for next year. However, for our campground we don’t open up bookings until after January, so I expect come January we’re going to be inundated with phone calls with people wanting to book in, especially if COVID is still a problem here.” 

It’s not only campgrounds that have seen this boom, but the RV industry as a whole.

According to the Canadian Recreational Vehicle Association’s website, the RV industry has seen a major surge in sales throughout Canada and the United States. 

David Jensen was one of these people deciding to purchase an RV for the first time, as a good way to spend time with family.

“We can’t travel out of the country like we used to. We rented an RV for the long weekend in May and enjoyed it, so we decided to get one we could use and our two children could use.” 

This surge is also leading to shortages at dealerships across Canada with the CRVA saying one dealership had 28 trailers and motorhomes sold in one day.