LOUISVILLE, Ky. — David Shirley and his family were packing up their RV last week at a shady, quiet spot in a campground in Bullitt County.
They had traveled there from Evansville, Indiana for a basketball tournament and had been parked there for a week, surrounded by other recreational vehicles.
The family takes their RV on the road about two weekends a month, and they, along with many others on the road this summer, aren't deterred by high gas prices.
What You Need To Know
- Higher gas prices are not slowing the sales of recreational vehicles
- A Louisville dealer reports business has doubled since the start of the pandemic
- According to the RV Industry Association, families may take shorter trips or stay closer to home because of high gas prices, but they haven’t stopped driving RVs
- The association says a record 600,000 RVs were produced last year
"Any time that we’re going to travel, we try to take it because it’s cheaper than a hotel room and you have all your cooking, grills and stoves and everything you need, so you don’t have to spend money eating out," Shirley said.
Twenty miles away in Louisville is an RV dealership, Station Park Honda, where co-owner Dean Johnson says business is "on fire."
He can’t get enough RVs to meet the demand lately.
“We’re taking delivery of everything they’ll give us, so it’s still a supply issue, as in the car dealers," Johnson said. "We could take and sell plenty more, but we’re only able to get so many.”
Since the start of the pandemic, RV sales have doubled, he said.
"We hear the same thing from everybody, no matter what age group they’re in," Johnson said. "Everybody wants the same thing. They just want to get away."
For some, the first stop is his dealership on 9th Street.
One customer traveled from Fairbanks, Alaska to purchase one of the vehicles, he said.
An overflow room that would typically have about 30 RVs on display recently had only two, and they had already been sold.
"Everyone thinks that retirees is what fuels the RV business, but it’s actually millennials driving this," said Johnson.
According to the RV Industry Association, families may take shorter trips or stay closer to home because of high gas prices, but they haven’t stopped driving RVs.
"A hotel room is going to run you $150 a night," said Shirley. "You can stay here for $45 a night."
A record 600,000 recreational vehicles were produced last year and this year is expected to be the second best year for production, according to the RV Industry Association.