b'Analysisfrom page 3amenities such as dump stations. Research also indicates the need for increased pull-through RV sites within both private and public sec-tors. Altogether, these findings in-dicate that increasing campsite amenities should be a priority of the campground industry, as this would improve consumers over-all campsite experience.With the significant influx of new RVers in recent years, the data in the report clearly indicates that both the public and private campground sectors within the Outdoor Hospitality industry need to continue to grow, expand and Reservation Softwarefrom page 22 redevelop their supply of facilities to keep pace with consumer de-but the company has noticed things kicking back in gear over the last four tomand, particularly when it comes six months, according to Frank Verhagen, president of the company. to providing full hookups and Wi-During the whole COVID crisis we did OK and trudged along, he noted.Fi to meet both current and future We lost a few clients, but everything stayed pretty level, but over the last sixneeds of RVers.months we have been getting more leads and sales, so that is exciting. Baker highlighted several key A new booking map is one of the more exciting additions to the platform,takeaways from the study: he noted. The first is that if you look at It gives the ability to search for availability on certain arrival and departurethe growth in overall popularity of dates, and then has a site map that shows which sites are available on thosecamping, and the growth of RVing dates and allows campers to book a particular site from the map, Verhagenin the last 10-12 yearsespe-said.cially the last couplewe clearly The company has also added an accounting feature that allows clients toneed more inventory in both the take reservations and payments, and it all gets recorded in one area. publicandprivateparks.That All you have to do at the end of the year is export the data and send it alongcould either be new campgrounds to your accountant, Verhagen noted. or the expansion of existing camp-One of the big projects that the company is going to be focused on for thegrounds with more campsites, year ahead is an internal messaging system that will allow park employees tohe said. stay in touch with each other. Another key finding is ameni-You will also be able to communicate with guests and future gueststiesespecially electric, water through the system, Verhagen explained. and sewer hookupsneeds to be 403-777-9300https://webrezpro.com WCM addressed as well, Baker contin-ued. And a third key takeaway is that, while the number of public and private campgrounds are sim-ilar, the number of campsites is skewedmoretowardprivate parks. I would add another key take-away is, while many times public campgrounds are seen to be in competitionwithprivateparks, theres a lot of times where theyre not. We think theres an opportu-nity especially in those gateway communities, where better public campgrounds will actually drive morepeopletoprivatecamp-grounds. Thefindingsinthiscamp-ground research play an important role in understanding and elevat-ing the campground sector within the wider outdoor recreation in-dustry.Going forward itll be used twofold, Baker said. No. 1, inter-nally, we intend to use this for our Government Affairs team and their advocacyeffortstoworkwith campground officials at the state andfederallevelstoshowthe need for more campgrounds and better amenities. Secondly, this willbeavailabletoourcamp-ground partners so they can use itfortheirefforts,includingto demonstrate to investors the need for increased campsites in order to secure funding. Members can view the full RV Industry Association Campground IndustryMarketAnalysisat tinyurl.com/4vznj67k WCM24 May 2022Woodalls Campground Magazine'