ELKHART, Ind. – The participation gap was the key focus for Toby O’Rourke, president and CEO of Billings, Mont.-based Kampgrounds of America Inc. (KOA), during her comments at this morning’s 2026 RV Industry Power Breakfast.
O’Rourke explained that more people are camping — in fact, there were 52 million campers in 2025, a 24% increase over 2019 — but camping frequency is down. In 2019, 12% of camping households camped just once a year; this rose to 34% in 2025.
“Two-thirds of all people who are camping are doing so just once or twice a year compared to 55% in 2019,” she said. “That’s a significant loss in camper nights at campgrounds.”
Data also shows that 5% to 8% of people who own an RV didn’t use it last year, and O’Rourke said that might be a conservative estimate.
“This difference in participation has a big impact at campgrounds, but it also has a big impact at dealers because if people are not using their product, they’re not inclined to upgrade or purchase another one,” she explained. “I think that this participation gap is the defining issue in our industry right now. It’s not about increasing awareness. It’s about attacking participation.”
She dived into the affordability issue and told the audience that affordability does not mean campers will automatically go camping. In fact, 35% of campers agree that RV travel is an affordable way to vacation, but affordability alone has not turned the tide on participation issues.
She highlighted three groups: The Secure RVers, Cautious Campers and Aspiring Owners, noting that all three groups value the outdoors and camping; the difference between them is in flexibility in the time that they have and the money they can spend.
“We need to make camping multiple times a year feel possible again because that will drive purchases,” she said. “If we do it well, it will drive more bookings at campgrounds. It will drive purchases that’ll help fix the short-term problem we have, but it’s also going to help us solidify a long-term commitment to this activity that we all believe in. We are optimized for acquisition. We need to optimize for participation. I think that that is something definitely worth putting our collective time and energy towards solving and tackling together.”
