by Al Hesselbart
Contributing Editor
The 44th annual National RV Trade Show opened with the Outlook 2007 breakfast at 6:30 AM Tuesday November 28th. Steve Buttleman, who has been the official bugler for Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby for over 10 years, called all the RV industry “to the post” with a series of traditional horse racing bugle calls.
RVIA President Richard Coon reviewed the state of the industry and the outlook for the next year. “The extraordinary increase in fuel prices has not dramatically reduced the amount of travel done by RV owners,” said Coon, “nor has it had effect on the number of units produced. The last year has seen a 27 year high in RV production of over 423,000 units including the 38,000 Emergency Living Units (ELUs) produced for FEMA.” Coon also stated that the recent growth is forecast to continue with Dr. Richard Curtin of the University of Michigan Survey Research Center estimating the rise to 8.5 million RV families by 2010 with one out of 12 vehicle owning families using an RV and a rise in annual sales to over 500,000 units within the next decade.
The continued success of the Go RVing campaign was reviewed by campaign Co-Chairmen Don Walter of Starcraft RV and Tom Stinnett of Tom Stinnett RV Freedom Center reviewed the achievements of the last year and the plans for the coming year’s market expansion efforts. TV star Tom Selleck will continue to be the industries voice on TV and Radio. The Go RVing presentation was colored with appearances by a list of RV using celebrities including internationally recognized athlete Dean Karnazes who recently completed his 50 marathons in 50 days in 50 states campaign, and American Idol top 10 female stars finalist, Celena Rae, who further set the tone for the show with her upbeat and positive selection of songs. Other successful RVers to appear included Professional Bowling’s all time top money winner Walter Ray Williams, World Series of Poker winner Mark Hanna, and Jon Provost who played Timmy in the early “Lassie” TV series.
Peter Greenberg, travel guru for the NBC Today Show and host of the syndicated Travel Today radio show was presented with the RVIA Distinguished Achievement in RV Journalism Award for his thorough and informative reporting of the RV industry’s booming growth and expanding popularity.
The show filled all available space at the Kentucky Exposition Center with nearly 1 million square feet of exhibits presented by 96 manufacturers and 300 suppliers displaying their products to over 5300 representatives of RV dealers, accessory store owners, campground operators and warehouse distributors who joined over 8,000 manufacturer and supplier representatives for a total attendance of nearly 14,000 industry representatives. “Attendance was a slight decrease from last year’s totals,” said Mary Ann Hautala, RVIA Director of Meetings and Shows, “but the actual number of dealerships represented was up with slightly fewer people were present representing each dealership.” International dealer attendance at the show was up very dramatically, with 1186 international dealer personnel registering compared to only 136 representatives in 2005.
The most obvious theme throughout the show was the huge variety of sport utility RVs (SURV), “toy haulers” being shown by nearly every manufacturer of travel trailers, fifth wheels, and motorhomes. Rear ramp boxes and side ramp boxes including some with front-end side ramp boxes as opposed to rear boxes were featured in most every display.
Medium sized travel trailers with garages that would hold one or two motorcycles were compared to motorhomes with garages that would welcome a small auto.
Advances in technology were apparent in both supplier and manufacturer displays. Winnebago Industries, in a dramatic first day ceremony, unveiled its 2008 Destination and Itasca Latitude models that will give customers a choice of either gas or diesel pusher configurations. Coachmen Industries introduced a line of micro-travel trailers 12 to 18 feet long and extremely light weight for towing behind today’s smaller economy autos. TL Industries, a small towable manufacturer from Elkhart, introduced a line of recreational park model units featuring drywall interiors and upscale fabrics and furnishings under the Scenic View Cottages brand. (editor note – photos at www.scenicview-rv.com) Aftermarket component supplier THULE showed a system of interchangeable accessories such as tables, storage bins, and support hooks and that clip to permanently mounted “pods” placed on the sidewalls of customer units.
Both manufacturer and dealer outlook was decidedly upbeat and the industry appeared to be poised for a continuation of the growth and successes of the past 2 years. 14
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