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HUMBOLDT
COUNTY, Calif. -- Rising fuel prices might actually increase visitation
at local RV parks as people drop their far-away travel plans to, say,
Yellowstone, and choose a redwoods vacation instead, said Tony Smithers,
executive director of the Humboldt County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
"People will change their habits," he says. "They maybe
will not drive so far, and so hopefully we are considered not so far —
our main area to market is Bay Area-Sacramento."
For the first time in six years, says Cynthia Harris with the American
Automobile Association, car and RV travel nationwide was off 1 percent
over Memorial Day weekend.
John Porter, co-owner of the Benbow RV Resort, says their business was up
the first four months of this year, but in May slacked. But that's
compared to an unusually buoyant May last year. And this Memorial Day
"was a sellout weekend," he says.
They've had just one cancellation so far, says Porter — a woman from Reno
who'd actually prepaid to stay in the park but decided she couldn't
afford the gas to get there.
"But to be quite honest, the high gas prices may not totally be a
negative," says Porter. "We're so close to what we call the
'Santa Rosa corridor.' And, we're a destination resort. People might come
to Benbow and stay a week."
Mel Wright, who with his wife Patricia owns the Wright RV dealership on
Broadway, says business is going well.
"In fact, up until recently, we had more units sold than we could
deliver," Wright says. "But I don't know if that will continue.
Our manufacturers are way down on orders."
SOURCE: The North Coast Journal
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