RV travelers stop short

RV travelers stop short
Fuel costs mean fewer trips and staying closer to home
By EDWARD D. MURPHY
Staff Writer Portland Press Herald

OLD ORCHARD BEACH — Sky-high fuel prices are forcing Bill Bush to make some adjustments.

The resident of North Adams, Mass., still uses his large recreational vehicle for vacations, but he has cut out the weekend trips. He travels shorter distances when he does slide behind the wheel.

And he stays at his destinations longer, rather than burning expensive diesel fuel to move to a different spot every couple of days.

"You save where you can," said Bush, who spent the July 4th weekend at the Wild Acres Campground in Old Orchard Beach.

RV owners, dealers and campground owners say high gas and diesel prices are causing changes in habits that could affect a big piece of Maine's tourism businesses. And tourism -- Maine's largest employment sector -- is important to the state's economy. In 2006, the most recent year for which data is available, it generated $10.06 billion in sales, 140,000 jobs and $429 million in taxes.

The effect that high gas prices and changing RV use will have on Maine is hard to read. Fewer RV travelers are coming to Maine, but those who come are staying longer. And although there aren't as many out-of-state RV visitors, more residents are deciding to park their RVs at campgrounds closer to home.

Bush isn't ready to keep the RV in his driveway, even though it costs him nearly $500 to fill the 100-gallon tank with diesel fuel.

"If you're going to own it, you're going to use it," Bush said. "We're not going every weekend like we used to, and we're taking shorter trips."

He said he hasn't considered putting his RV up for sale and he's not about to trade it in for a new one. But "if you didn't have one, are you going to buy one? Probably not," he said.

Those who sell RVs say there's some truth to that.

"The interest is still there, but the sales are down," said Randy Gardner, service manager of Lee's Family Trailer Sales and Service in Windham.

Gardner said many customers have been bringing their RVs and campers in for service, to keep them on the road longer instead of shelling out for new vehicles. "We're seeing a lot of stuff fixed, rebuilt and redone," he said.

Pat Kosalka, who with her husband owns Sagadahoc Bay Campground on Georgetown Island, said her season for RV customers started slowly.

"We were down on the RV sites in May about 60 percent" from last year, Kosalka said, and June was off 30 percent.

"The rest of July looks a lot better," she said.

Kosalka, who is president of the Maine Campground Owners Association, said there are far more Maine residents in many campgrounds, more people are arriving in cars and pitching tents, and cottage rentals are up. It's cheaper to drive a minivan or a station wagon to a campground than a recreational vehicle that gets eight or nine miles a gallon.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=198228&ac=PHbiz




Photos By John Ewing/Staff Photographer