Thursday Thoughts: Summer Travel Begins. What will it look like?
Planning for the future requires information, and our goal is to monitor industry research/data to assist our partners in understanding short and long term COVID-19 ideas and opportunities.
Photos: @ranasawalha, @anniespratt
Summer Travel During Covid-19
Road Trip! Our blog entries over the past couple of weeks have focused on a few areas, including how people will likely travel in the upcoming months as they emerge from their homes. Memorial Day weekend traditionally kicks off the summer season, and this year is no different – albeit with muted fanfare…and more likely on wheels than wings.
As we’ve noted in our recent blog posts, travelers may view traveling by vehicle preferable to traveling by plane. In addition, they’re wary of the cleanliness of a hotel room. Hotel companies are in a race to partner with hospitals and cleaning product manufacturers to develop their custom approaches to cleanliness. For the upcoming summer vacation season, travelers may decide to wait to understand the efficacy of these programs. In the meantime Go RVing says : Go on a Real Vacation! So, how do we do that without an RV of our own?
A quick scan of the internet provides a sense of the proliferation of options available for renting an RV. Outdoorsy and RVshare make connections between private RV owners and renters. For more than 40 years the RV rental company, Cruise America, has been an industry fixture for national park hopping, especially in the southwestern and mountain areas of the U.S. In addition to these national RV rental brands, there are numerous local options across the country.
When combined with the nightly RV unit rental price, fuel, and nightly site fees, the cost of a night in an RV can rival that of a hotel room night. However, travelers may consider the benefits of an RV vacation – self-contained unit, emphasis on outdoor locations, and a new experience – to be attractive enough to try it.
Make sure your parks and campgrounds are ready to welcome RV vacationers with a clear website that emphasizes the current public health guidelines for your state and locality, up-to-date site availability information, and links to area resources that might be helpful for guests (such as dining options, attractions that are open, etc.). This is an opportunity to introduce a whole new travel lifestyle to a segment of the population!
We will see you out there., hopefully with a Mask On!
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