The Kampgrounds of America, Inc. (KOA) Monthly Research Report – April 2023 Edition found more households planning to camp over Memorial Day Weekend.
KOA’s report said 22.6 million households said they planned to camp during the May holiday, the highest mark since October 2022.
“Campers are an especially fervent group of travel enthusiasts, and we can especially see this in how they plan,” said Whitney Scott, senior vice president of strategy at Kampgrounds of America, Inc. “This group looks forward to time spent in nature and plans accordingly to secure their favorite campgrounds and campsites.”
KOA said after a strong off-season, camping is expected to continue to be popular among leisure travelers. Almost a quarter of campers have booked all their camping trips for the year, a percentage that doubled since the previous month. An additional 20% of camping households booked at least one trip, with more planned. Only 9% of non-camping travelers have booked their trips for the year.
“Our research shows that campers look forward to new experiences and adventures,” Scott said. “The changing seasons offer new ways to experience nature that directly affect the growth of winter and off-season camping. We expect to see even more growth during this half of the year in the future.”
April report said winter camping, which does not include snowbirding, included 1.3 million households. The total brought 2023’s end-of-season household camping total to over 8.2 million. KOA said off-season camping brought an estimated 6.15 million new campers to the activity.
The April report also found that March camping increased by more than 3 million households from March 2022.
