Archive for November, 2008

>Santa Cruz Sentinel – Santa Cruz,CA,USA
It wasn’t the first time the Santa Cruz/Monterey Bay KOA campground hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for its guests. But it was one of the biggest.

Montana Hutton, who’s been in charge of the kitchen for the past three years, prepared 14 turkeys — twice as many as usual — when he saw how many people had made campground reservations.

Between 350 and 400 people are staying at the local KOA, which has filled its RV spaces but has cabins available.
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>Forest City, Iowa – Winnebago Industries Inc. received notification that the company’s Itasca and Winnebago brands have earned the Quality Circle Award from RVDA.

“We are extremely proud to receive the Quality Circle Award again this year,” said Winnebago Industries’ Chairman, CEO and President Bob Olson. “We are also very proud that Winnebago Industries has received the Quality Circle Award every year since 1995, an accomplishment no other motor home or travel trailer manufacturer in the industry has been able to attain.”

The DSI survey, which determines the Quality Circle Award winners, rates manufacturers’ performance in eight core areas: sales support, sales territory, vehicle design, vehicle reliability/quality, competitive price/value, parts support, dealership warranty support and overall dealer communications.

The Winnebago and Itasca brands were both recognized for scoring 80 percent or above in overall dealer satisfaction as measured in the Dealer Satisfaction Index (DSI) survey conducted by RVDA.
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>The recent roller coaster ride in fuel costs has failed to deter recreational vehicle enthusiasts from enjoying private campgrounds and RV resorts in Texas, according to a recent online survey by the Texas Association of Campground Owners (TACO).

The survey, conducted in October, found that 82 percent of RV enthusiasts planned to use their RVs this fall at least as much as they did last year at this time.

“Winter reservations for campgrounds and RV resorts in Texas are as strong as they’ve ever been,” said Brian Schaeffer, TACO’s executive director.

Some parks are already booked up for the winter. “We stopped taking reservations two months ago,” said Mac McLaughlin, co-owner of the 129-site Hatch RV Park in Corpus Christi, adding that his park continues to see large numbers of Canadians. “We had four times as many Canadians last year as the year before,” he said.

McLaughlin said about 20 percent of his winter visitors arrive just after Thanksgiving, although he’s already had “about eight or nine” show up at his park unexpectedly. He said the remaining 80 percent of his winter visitors will arrive at his park just after Christmas. “A lot of Winter Texans like to spend Christmas at home,” he said.

Not every park is seeing strong business, however. Doug Shearer, owner of the 95-site Parkview Riverside RV Park in Rio Frio, said his winter bookings are down slightly from last year. “We were off in October and our advance reservations for November and December are down. But you can’t go by that. I had a surprise guest show up today without a reservation and he wants to spend the winter here.” Shearer added that his winter business has generally increased 10 or 20 percent each year since he opened the park in March of 2001.
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