b"Q&A ORourkefrom page 39 turning to those markets. We're see-ing business in those locations way whole industry to have a lot of playersup and everywhere else we're seeing in the mix.trends normalize, I think, to what this WCM:Lookingatthemostrecentnew bar is. business report, occupancy numbersIm not worried at all. I think it's super were down 6.6% over the last quarter. Ishealthy. I think it makes a ton of sense thatsomethingthattheindustrywhen you think about what a strange should be concerned about? year last year was, and now that life is re-ORourke: No. We had the pandemicsuming some sense of normalcy across and all of these people gravitated to thethe country, I think what we're seeing in outdoors and it created such an anom- 2022 is going to be our new benchmark aly last year. People didnt want to takethat we'll start to build from. traditional vacations by and large, andWCM: For decades there wasnt a ton people werent traveling on airplanesof new construction projects in the sys-for the most part. They maybe weren'ttem, but that seems to have changed. Is doing their traditional trip to Disney- that going to continue? Is KOA now land or elsewhere. So, we saw this surgelooking to always have a few parksKOA continues to explore new ways to engage with campers as it works to stay on top of industry trends. ofinterestintheoutdoors,andinunder construction?camping, right? It went way, way upORourke: Absolutely. Weve had quitethat could slow down new constructionOur goal is to have two chargers at and theres no way you can sustain that.a few parks on new construction con- possibly, but we have to just continue toevery KOA as soon as we canstarting The way I look at it is that 2022 is ourtracts for the past several years, and itskeep an eye on it, but its a trend that'swiththoseintheparkinglotsand new bar. just continuing. Were continuing tocontinuing.places that can be easily accessed. Not Earlier when I was talking aboutsee people wanting to sign new buildWCM: We talk a lot about EVsand wenecessarily tied to sites, so maybe by the year-over-year growth that we hadcontracts. Even us, corporately, we'reimagine that is a discussion that youthe pool or by the registration office. coming out in the last recession, webuilding parks, and thats somethinghave had at KOA. Is KOA going to beThen we'll move from there. People on were always measuring back to thatthat we have not done as a corporationprepared for a potential surge in EVs? ourteam,likeDougMulvaney,are 2011 number. We just went throughin our history. We typically buy parksORourke:Weareinthethickofworking very hard onsite designs that all of the budgets for our corporate- and convert them. Now we're buildingpreparing our parks right now. Were re- incorporate EV and understanding all owned parks this week and as I wasparks, too. allyfocusedoneducatingourselvesthe capacity you need to have in order going through these parks and con- I think its just because we are in aand our franchisees, and then educat- to fully support EV. Were really focused sidering the different destinations, Igood market. We know theres high de- ing the customer. Weve been diggingon educating ourselves because theres was contemplating this. Markets likemandforcamping,andinsomeinto EV, I would say, for the past year.a lot of misinformation. Nobody exactly Orlando, Fla., or Nashville, Tenn., orplaces where you want to be you'reWere implementing EV projects at a lotknows every little piece, and as we learn Las Vegas, Nev.these tourism mar- going to have to build a park, becauseof our locations and we're actually giv- more, we just try to continue to circu-kets were way up this year, even com- one's not for sale or its not the oppor- ing away EV chargers every month aslate that information so that we're all paredto2019,whichwerereallytunity that you want to see in the mar- part of our promotion of our Campprepared. strong years. They way surpassed lastket.We'rebuildingparks,butwereGreen Program. We, as a corporation,To watch the full program, including year, because last year people werentabsolutely seeing franchised contractsare investing heavily in EV stations onsegmentsthatwerenotpartofthis going as much to the leisure destina- being signed for new builds. I do thinkall of our own properties, both on thetranscriptgotowww.facebook.com/ tion cities, right? They were going tothat's going to continue to be a trend asKOAsideandat Terramor. Weevenwoodallscm or listen to it as a podcast the national parks, for example, andwe move forward. Now we are headedhave EV chargers put in at our officeon Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google state parks, but now people are re- into an uncertain economic climate, sobuilding.Podcasts. WCM WOODALLSCM.comFebruary 2023 41"