Site plans | Spurred by a sluggish economy, more vacationing Mainers are staking out options at local campgrounds.
Photo/David A. Rodgers
Todd Southwick, owner of Kokatosi Campground in Raymond
Photo/David A. Rodgers
Richard Abare, executive director of the Maine Campground Owners Association, says the campground business in Maine is "a growth industry"
Photo/David A. Rodgers
Todd Southwick, owner of Kokatosi Campground in Raymond, arranges goods at his new camp store
In the race to attract happy campers and make them happier, Todd Southwick has ramped up the power at his Kokatosi Campground in Raymond to accommodate big RVs and expanded his camp store to include a gift section. He’s counting on these offerings, plus a few other summery enticements, to convince his guests — who are expected to visit Maine campsites in record numbers this year — to stay a little longer.
“We try to get them to take an extra day off of work, a Friday or Tuesday,” Southwick says.
Across Maine, campgrounds are readying for summer, many with the expectation that this season could be a busy and prosperous one despite the recession, or rather, partly because of it. Conventional wisdom says a lousy economy means people will scale back vacation costs, seeking cheaper alternatives for getaways. Plus, gas prices are below what they were last summer, helping to encourage more tourists to make the long drive to the lake or seaside.
Those favorable signs have prompted more than half a dozen campgrounds across Maine to make major improvements in their businesses as they anticipate a surge of campers. From Balsam Cove Campground in East Orland to Flat Rock Bridge Family Resort in Lebanon and Bayley’s Camping Resort in Scarborough, campgrounds have upgraded sewer and electrical systems, expanded campsites, and built playgrounds and swimming pools, spending millions of dollars.
Michelle Letts, who bought Balsam Cove with her husband in 2007, has invested around $500,000, adding roads and re-graveling others, building out campsites, updating infrastructure and offering extracurricular activities like hayrides and arts and crafts classes. She’d be pleased to see a 20% growth in her business, which pulled in a little less than $200,000 in revenues last year.
“People still want to go on vacation, and the cheapest way to vacation is camping,” she points out.
Narrows Too Camping Resort in Bar Harbor, which was bought in 2005 by Chicago-based Equity Lifestyle Properties, has spent a whopping $4 million, giving every site a new picnic table and a new fire ring, building a new clubhouse, store and bathhouse, refurbishing the arcade building and landscaping the entire property.
Jim Halle, manager of Paradise Park Resort in Old Orchard Beach, says his resort has completed a $750,000 investment, adding new sites to allow for bigger RVs, as well as building new restrooms and installing a new pool. He explains that the improvements were necessary because the business was starting to lose American clientele, who favor larger RVs. “In the last 25 years, RVs have grown by an average of 22 feet,” he says.
Many of the campground improvements around the state were planned pre-recession. But for some years now, camping has become increasingly attractive to summer vacationers, and the current confluence of a tattered economy and affordable gas prices can only help continue that trend, experts say.
“The RV lifestyle is growing in popularity,” says Richard Abare, executive director of the Maine Campground Owners Association in Lewiston. “With the baby boomers reaching retirement age, the popularity of camping and possibly having a camper is growing across the country.”
Abare says, too, that younger parents are also taking to camping. “More and more young people are looking for ways to spend time with their families. Ten years ago, families didn’t worry about the kids spending too much time in front of the TV or computer. They’re looking for ways to get their kids away from that.”
Couple these social factors with camping’s affordability, and you have a summer business that seemingly can weather all types of economic storms. Already this spring campground owners are seeing healthy reservation rates, booking their sites for weekends well through August.
“Advanced reservations are soaring,” Southwick of Kokatosi says. And his business strategy is also aiming high. Along with expanding his campground store, he has plans to construct playgrounds and basketball courts in the future. “We’re keeping up with the times of campers,” he says, “and adding amenities.”
Camping comforts
The investments being made in Maine campgrounds are in some ways necessary to stay competitive. Many of the campgrounds were built in the 1950s and 1960s, Abare explains, and they have had to improve their electrical infrastructure to accommodate larger RVs that come loaded with energy-gobbling amenities, from dishwashers to air-conditioning units. Campgrounds are also investing in capital improvements to persuade visitors to settle in for a few more days.
Financially, campground owners know they have an edge in a sour economy: booking a campsite for a week is a lot less pricey than staying in a Hilton hotel, and it can arguably be more satisfying for some vacationers, as long as they have enough bug spray.
Halle, of Paradise Park, says in the past 12 years, he’s seen the number of campers practically double. “You have a lot more freedom with an RV, the children can ride their bikes, you can have a campfire outside,” he says. “There’s more family atmosphere than in a hotel room.” Paradise Park makes about $500,000 a year, earning about $3,500 per RV site and around $2,800 per campsite during the season, according to Halle.
But even with this kind of advantage, many campgrounds must figure out how to make those weekenders linger so the business can grow despite the constraints of fixed space and a short season. They’re doing that not so much by marketing, but rather by beefing up what they have to offer on site. Campers need enticements to stick around; sometimes hanging out in nature is not enough.
“If you’re a true rustic campground, it’s harder to get people to stay,” John Hastings, owner of Flat Rock Resort in Lebanon, says. “The length of stay is where I’m trying to grow. The more we offer, the more people will stay.” Hastings bought his campground five years ago and has spent around half a million dollars fixing it up. He upgraded his electrical system, built a “brand spanking new pool with a hot tub,” and repaired the older swimming pool. He also removed some of the 450 sites, which were “all crammed together,” to increase privacy, as well as added Wi-Fi. And he now offers movies at night and books live music acts.
His campground, which employs 45 people and accommodates between 1,200 and 1,400 campers a week, pulls in about $1 million a year in revenue, he says.
Marketing to staycationers
In general, Abare of the campground association says campgrounds that make investments will likely see a healthy return. “You are renting the earth and you rent it over and over again. The upkeep is to mow the lawns. The actual gross profit can be pretty good,” he says.
There are 275 licensed campgrounds in Maine, including state parks, according to Abare, and the average campground has around 85 sites, with prices ranging from $20 a night to upwards of $100. Abare figures that campgrounds in Maine — which can be as small as four to 10 campsites to close to 750 sites at Bayley’s, the largest — can gross between $40,000 to an excess of $1 million.
But then again, campgrounds have a small window to make all that money — mostly just July and August — so they have to do as much as possible to take advantage of the fleeting summer sun and warmth in northern New England.
One of the strategies for campgrounds is to attract more Mainers. These potential guests are good targets since they are generally already familiar with the joys of being outdoors, and while they’re looking to have fun, many are also looking for economical vacations.
Abare says his organization “actively markets to Mainers,” and that Maine people make up the majority of visitors to most Maine campgrounds, especially in the inland and northern regions of the state. Canadians and out-of-staters tend to prefer coastal sites, he says. These days, the ratio between Mainers and out-of-staters seems to be shifting to weigh more heavily toward these so-called staycationers.
Southwick says so far Maine reservations at his Raymond campground make up around 80% of the total. In other years, that ratio has been 50/50. Hastings says typically 50% of his guests at Flat Rock come from Massachusetts, 30% come from New Hampshire, and the rest are Mainers. But this year, his bookings show that 40% of the guests are coming from in state. “Which is wonderful because I like seeing local folks go camping,” he says.
Hastings says that due to this shift, he has focused his marketing efforts more locally. “We did do the camping RV show in Maine, which is in Portland. We haven’t done that for a few years; part of it is that people are staying in Maine.” He still, however, markets all through New England, attending camping shows in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
Overall, he’s optimistic about the campground business, which Abare calls “a growth industry.”
“I think there are fluctuations within the industry, but the industry will always be strong because it is an inexpensive way to vacation,” Hastings says. “No matter how hard things are, you still want to get away during the summer. People can have a heck of a time and not spend a lot of money.”
Rebecca Goldfine, a writer based in Portland, can be reached at editorial@mainebiz.biz.
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