Camping sees surge in interest during coronavirus pandemic

Yahoo Finance’s Alexis Christoforous and Brian Sozzi speak with Kampgrounds of Americas CEO Toby O’Rourke about how U.S. campgrounds are faring amid the coronavirus crisis.

Video Transcript

BRIAN SOZZI: After months stuck indoors, many Americans are looking for a way to safely experience the great outdoors by going camping. And after seeing cancellations surge by 133% since March, campground company KOA says demand is starting to come back. Let's talk about with Toby O'Rourke. She's the CEO of Kampgrounds Of America, which has more than 500 franchised campgrounds across North America.

Toby, good to see you this morning. How is your business doing right now ahead of the summer?

TOBY O'ROURKE: Doing very well, actually. We've started to see states open up camping within the past couple of weeks, particularly headed into Memorial Day. The reservations are definitely coming back. We're seeing a lot of pent-up demand, surge of reservations, and our campgrounds are full where we're allowed to be open, which is most of the country right now, except for a couple of states still haven't quite opened up yet.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Toby, I know that your company conducted a survey recently of people who were looking to go camping. What are some of their top concerns? And are you seeing some new folks being brought into the camping circle, if you will, those who have never camped before who are now considering it as a vacation, given COVID-19?

TOBY O'ROURKE: Right, we did a survey at about the beginning of May, trying to understand how people were going to travel and recreate in light of the pandemic. And we did see a lot of interest. In fact, one third of people who have never camped before are now interested in camping. So we're very excited to see.

In terms of what people are looking for, safety is definitely top of mind. We asked people to rank different forms of travel. And actually campers and non-campers alike ranked camping at the top of that list for safety. So we know people are concerned about social distancing. And the outdoors provides a great way to do that, which is why we think there's a lot of interesting camping right now.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: What are some of the things specifically that KOA is doing to help people be safe and social distance during their time of camping? I know that there was some talk about shared bathrooms being an issue at camp sites. What are you guys doing?

TOBY O'ROURKE: Sure. We put together pretty extensive operation guidelines for each of our parks to build a customized plan based off the restrictions in their area and how they wanted to operate. So you're going to see things such as modified check procedures to make them contactless. You may not need to come into the store to register. We're going to try to get you to your site as quick as possible.

As you mentioned, in a lot of areas, you're going to see bathroom facilities closed, other group facilities closed, and even recreation and pools closed for these initial phases of reopening in particular. We're obviously taking into account social distancing. There's ample space between camp sites already, which is nice.

And many people are coming by RV, which is a self-contained unit. They have all of their own things, their own belongings, their restrooms, can cook their own food. So it provides a nice way to recreate, yet maintain a little diligence about the virus.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: So if bathrooms in this first phase, if I heard that right, Toby, are not going to be open, basically are you allowing people to come in who have RVs and their own bathrooms attached? And those who are just sort of independently camping without those, I guess what would they do for a facility?

TOBY O'ROURKE: Right, it depends on an area of the country. Not all bathrooms are going to be closed. Sometimes we're required by the state or a county to close those bathrooms. And in that case, it would not make sense to come if you were a tent camper. So tent camping is probably restricted.

But if you're coming in an RV or you're staying in a cabin that has bathrooms, then you're going to be fine.

BRIAN SOZZI: Toby, I know this may be a little bit granular. But you do have camp sites in Minneapolis, in New York, and on the West Coast. In light of what you've seen with this civil unrest, have you seen orders pick up, that people want to escape some of these hot spots in the city and go out for a breather, and do so via camping?

TOBY O'ROURKE: Well, we do know that camping is a good form of stress relief. And that's played back to us consistently in research, a way for people to escape everything happening. Now I can't trace any reservations specifically to what's happening in the country right now. But we do know these areas that have camping open up, people are definitely wanting to get out and camp.

Now Minnesota just opened for camping on June 1. So we're just now seeing that recreational camping business come back in Minnesota. And California is pretty much still locked down by and large across-- different counties are opening up, but not the whole state.

So in general, though, we do see people-- especially Memorial Day weekend was very busy-- we see people wanting to get out of the cities and camp.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Toby, I know you have more than 500 franchised campgrounds across North America. That's a lot of franchisees. What are you hearing from them?

Have any of them been able to get loans from the PPP program? Were they even able to given the parameters there? And are some of them actually in jeopardy of remaining open?

TOBY O'ROURKE: Yeah, so this has been a very difficult time for our business. These are small business owners. These are not large corporations. And you're right, across the US and Canada, it's been very difficult financially.

A large majority of our franchisees were able to get PPP loans, which has been helpful. We've been trying, actively working to get camping opened up for summer, because it's a shortened season already. And so the more we cut into the summer business, it puts them at risk of not being able to make it.

We definitely have some campgrounds at risk of not being able to make it, because they've lost their spring and they're losing part of their summer. And God forbid we have a rebound in the virus and we lose part of our fall. We're going to see a lot of campgrounds have to close.

BRIAN SOZZI: Toby, in terms of hiring, how does your hiring look different this year versus last year? Camp counselors, you name it.

TOBY O'ROURKE: Well, we're definitely-- we had to pull back on staff. Us corporately, we own 32 parks ourselves. We had to pull back on staff in March and April, and started to bring people back in mid-May. So we're fully staffed in June as we're heading into the summer.

And all of our franchisees had to do the same. So we definitely saw workforce reduction. But by and large, if we're open this summer, we definitely need staff to keep-- to keep going. And especially as people got those PPP loans, they need to maintain their payrolls. So that's also helping with our workforce staying in place.

It's interesting about camping, is a lot of people who work on campgrounds are called work campers. These are traveling campers that go to a certain area and work for the season, live in an RV. And so there has been some impact on that. These tend to be older people that had some concerns about the virus. So we did see some cancellations of that workforce coming through, and we've had to alter how we hire.

BRIAN SOZZI: Toby, what about supplies? What about supplies, Toby? Listen, I've gone camping many times. I like going, loading up, going to Dick's Sporting Goods, buying a new expensive tent, a new barbecue, you name it. I am that person.

But these stores have been closed. Is there a shortage of these supplies?

TOBY O'ROURKE: Camping supplies, is that what you're--

BRIAN SOZZI: Camping supplies.

TOBY O'ROURKE: Yeah, well, I was watching earlier this morning. You guys had a great segment on outdoor retail coming back, various sporting goods stores. And so I think that there is definitely not necessarily a shortage. I think people can now get their hands-- because things are opening back up across the country. They can get their hands on those things.

Like I said, a lot of people are traveling by RV. And over 50% of campers in our survey said they're now interested in buying an RV. So we're keeping an eye on people flocking to dealerships who want to now buy or rent RVs. So I think that that's a pretty interesting takeaway out of the pandemic, is that now we're going to see a lot more interest to purchase or rent those types of vehicles.

BRIAN SOZZI: All right, let's leave it there. Toby O'Rourke, CEO of Kampgrounds of America. Good to speak with you, and good luck this summer.

TOBY O'ROURKE: Thank you.