Posts Tagged ‘RV Parks’

OKALOOSA ISLAND – Dale and Cheryl Lesh have their next two years of vacations planned and booked.
“We have our eyes on a particular site,” Cheryl said while lounging at the pool at Destin West RV Resort. “We love it. It’s quiet, the location’s great. We’re recommending it to friends.”

View a slideshow of the new RV parks. »

The RV park opened March 9 and has been registering a steady of flow of guests, from those with reservations to visitors who just pull in off U.S. Highway 98 on Okaloosa Island.

It took two years to build the park, and now it offers guests everything from a heated pool to all the amenities offered at Ramada Plaza Beach Resort across the highway.

Tolbert’s RV park is one of two that have opened recently. St. Rosa Sound RV Resort in Navarre also opened March 9 with more than 80 sites, 24 of which sit along the water.

“This year will be good. Next year will be better,” said manager Jinks Dupre. “Navarre is the best kept secret in the world, so who wouldn’t want to stay right by the beautiful water. Every RV park around here has had a ‘no va-cancy’ sign hanging for months.”

The site has a pool, fit-ness center and laundry. It does not allow popup campers or tents.

On Okaloosa Island, Destin West features 54 RV sites, each has a picnic table and patio. The park also has a laundry room, pool and a shop with camping gear and Destin West T-shirts.

“The response has been wonderful,” said Joe Guidry, general manager of the Ramada and Destin West. “We’ve got a lot of snowbirds and families coming here for that quiet atmosphere we have.”

The park has bookings scheduled for the next two months and its projected revenue for 2012 is about $1 million.

Mary Juergens has been traveling in her RV for the past 10 years. She said Wednesday that Des-tin West gets five stars from her.

“I love the area, it’s so nice being by the bay,” said Juergens, of St. Cloud, Minn. “To me, the top three things a good RV park needs is laundry facility, pool and sites that are paved.

“This place has all that, plus a friendly staff.”

“I’m trying to create a destination site on Okaloosa Island,” Tolbert said. “I want people to be able to come here and not have to get back in their cars until they leave. We want every-thing they need to be right here.”

Story Source

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Advance reservations at several campgrounds, RV parks and resorts in the greater Branson area were running well ahead of last year’s figures prior to last week’s tornado.

Park operators are therefore concerned about negative effects of media publicity.

“We’re hopeful that reporters will use caution in reporting about the tornadoes and not exaggerate the relatively minor damage that was reported in the Branson area,” said Larry Helms, president of the Missouri Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds.

Only one campground reported damage as a result of the storms.

Branson Missouri RV park and marina

“Our major attractions are totally untouched,” said Lynn Berry, director of public relations for the Branson Convention and Visitors Bureau, adding, “We estimate that things will be very much back in total swing in about a month, with the exception of the convention center and convention center hotel, the Hilton.”

“From my standpoint, (the storms produced) minimal damage,” said Kim Newell, who operates the Branson KOA, adding that her advance bookings are double what they were last year at this time at the 160-site park.

Newell added that business typically picks up after April 1st as the weather warms up.

Other Branson area campground owners also said their advance bookings have been up, including Lenny Ammerman of Treasure Lake Resort in Branson. “We are ahead of schedule by about 7 percent through March and April,” he said. “We’re looking good so far.”

Sue Alkire of America’s Best Campground said her group reservations are also running ahead of last year’s figures. “We didn’t even lose a tree branch (in the storms)” she said, adding that she hoped media would use care in reporting about the storms.

For more information about campgrounds in the Branson area, please contact Larry Helms at (573) 759-7294 and visit www.CampInMissouri.com.

Campground Owners of New York (CONY) is mobilizing smart phone technology to help you “Get Outdoors and Go Camping New York!”

Working with Syracuse-based Rounded Development, a leading agency for strategy, branding, mobile, and web, CONY has developed an application for use on smart phones and other like devices. The application – or “app” – provides screen-friendly information about New York campgrounds and RV parks, including distance markers and route mapping, and links to websites, emails, reservation pages, and phone numbers. The app launches today, February 28, 2012.

The app is free, and available at Apple’s App Store for iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, and from Android’s Market for Android devices and tablets. Find the app by typing in “NY Campground & RV Park Guide” or use keyword searches for CONY, New York campgrounds, NY campgrounds, New York camping, camping New York, camping, or RV parks.

Get the iPhone app

Get the Android app

Mike Papp owner of West Canada Creek Campsites in Poland, NY,  is very excited about the new CONY app. “Our campers use their smart phones for everything, many as a GPS to get to our park. Because our address does not come up in the standard GPS units, people will be able to find us easily by clicking on the link for directions in the app.”

Papp praises CONY’s efforts to stay competitive in the outdoor hospitality industry. “Statistics tell us that more and more people are using their smart phones to access the internet for research, directions, social networking and other reasons. CONY’s board of directors is constantly developing new ways to provide value to our member parks and the camping public, and this app provides a lot of value at no cost to CONY parks and app users. There sure aren’t many other state or national associations offering a similar app on the market yet!”

According to MobiThinking (TM), in its compilation of statistics on mobile phone usage (issued Nov 2011), consumer mobile behavior indicates the most popular mobile destinations are news and information, weather reports, social networking, search and maps. Mobile searches have quadrupled in the last year. And, the number of people accessing the mobile Internet is growing fast and is expected to overtake the PC as the most popular way to get on the Web within five years. (mobithinking.com)

The New York camping app features capabilities to:

• Search for nearby campgrounds
• Search for campgrounds by geographical region
• Search for campgrounds by amenities
• See a map of campgrounds by region
• Get turn by turn directions
• Make a reservation online or by phone
• Save campgrounds to a favorites list
• See detailed pictures, amenities and contact info for each park
• Share your experience with friends on Facebook, Twitter, or via email
• Access coupons and specials, so you can show your phone and save

Campground Owners of New York, founded in 1963, is an association dedicated to the promotion, growth, improvement and development of privately owned campgrounds in New York State. More information about the association and its campgrounds – including a free camping directory – is available at www.nycampgrounds.com.