Photo courtesy of Kampgrounds of America.

According to Kampground of America’s Monthly Research Report, more than 17.8 million households will kick off the summer camping season over Memorial and Victoria Day weekends, which is more than one-third of the projected 52.5 MIL households that intend to camp in 2021.

While most campers only plan to camp over the holiday weekend, the report indicates 24% plan to extend their trip by either a day or two or an entire week. Additional findings include campers’ preferred type of campground, top U.S. States and Canadian Provinces, and reasons for – and what’s keeping them from – camping. KOA’s report projects camping for 2021 will surpass 2020, which was a record year, and that of the 52.4 MIL projected to camp this season, 4.3 MIL will be first-time campers.

“As the travel industry continues to rebound from the pandemic, we believe it is important to closely monitor campers’ behavior and sentiment toward camping and travel in general,” says Toby O’Rourke, president and CEO of Kampgrounds of America. “Campers continue to indicate that they feel camping is safer than other forms of travel. This, coupled with lower rates of COVID-19 impacting summer camping plans, gives us a positive outlook for a strong camping season ahead.” 

Following the release of KOA’s Annual North American Camping Report, this new monthly report will track camping
incidence and behavior for all campers throughout the US and Canada on a month-by-month basis. To read May’s report click here.