Advertisement MBA Insurance Click Ad to pop-up full view

The overwhelming success of the United States military resulted in one of the shortest wars in history, and resulted in a minimum amount of human suffering, both with our armed forces personnel and the innocent people of Iraq who had endured a life of hell under the dictatorship of an evil man.

The restoration of freedom has begun, and with it comes a renewed euphoria for the RV industry that appears to have weathered the threat to continued growth and has once again regained the momentum that drives millions of people toward the RV lifestyle.

As the war diminishes, we see the gas prices dropping once again, as RVers around the country head out to their favorite campground or travel destination.

We can never take success for granted because too many people in this industry have worked so hard to make sure that the message of a great RVing experience gets in front of new people every day.

Dealers are reporting record months after a brief period of time when consumers took a "wait and see" attitude toward the war and the economy. While we still have economic issues to address on the home front, the consumer has started to spend money again and they are spending it on RVs.

Gas prices down, lot traffic up, dealers selling stock and ordering more from the manufacturers … its euphoria once again.

That doesn’t mean we can sit back and relax. It simply means that all indicators are in our favor and the forecast looks strong that conditions will stay that way for the balance of the year.

Many RV related decisions are impulse decisions for the consumer. Dealers must have inventory to feed the insatiable demand of the millions of new people who will discover the RV lifestyle this year, and the millions more who will sustain their passion for the benefits of RVing by upgrading their current unit to the latest and greatest that the industry can provide.

The feeling of happiness and well-being associated with the euphoria our industry enjoys will be short-lived if we cannot supply the demand that will once again propel industry numbers to expected levels for 2003.

Dealers must be aggressive in having units on the lot and they will be able to turn them into sales and profits.

Manufacturers must keep the pipeline full and must continue their aggressive advertising programs to keep their name in front of the consumer.

We can see the Go RVing campaign on television and print media and recognize the value that the campaign brings to the overall success of everybody involved in this industry.

This is not a time for the RV industry to slow down on those things that we can control. We drive the industry and we must continue to drive harder and produce results that equate to consumer satisfaction of the RV and the RV lifestyle.

The message is clear.

Don’t cut back on advertising.

Don’t cut back on lot inventory.

Don’t cut back at the factory.

Every economic forecast says the industry will grow.

But it will only grow if we continue to do the things that have earned us that right to be the lifestyle of choice by the American consumer.

We have the products they want and must be able to deliver them when they want them.

We make good products now and must make better products tomorrow.

We must take the euphoria of the consumer who is discovering the RV lifestyle and make sure that it continues past the first two weeks of ownership. The euphoria must be sustainable for a lifetime.

In order to achieve that, all we have to do is continue to work at it, continue to deliver, and continue to satisfy our customers.

Nobody ever said it was going to be easy, but it sure can be fun when we do it right.