Jason S. Vaughan is executive director of the Pennsylvania Campground Owners Association (PCOA). He’s one of only a handful of state campground association executives in recent decades who actually grew up living and working on a campground.
His parents acquired Mountain Vista Campground in East Stroudsburg, in Pennsylvania’s famed Pocono Mountains, in 1981.
Woodall’s Campground Magazine recently spoke with Vaughan about PCOA’s latest initiatives as well as Vaughan’s recent launch of Hospitality Connections, a national alliance that provides the benefits of group buying power to campground industry associations across the country.
Following is an edited transcript of our conversation.
WCM: Tell us a bit about your life growing up on a campground.
Jason Vaughan: Growing up, I followed my mother and father around and assisted them in many tasks. As I grew older, I took on more responsibility for various facets of the operation. (Several) friends of mine also grew up in campgrounds at the same time, (at) Blue Rocks Family Campground (in Lenhartsville), Otter Lake Camp Resort (in Marshalls Creek), Keen Lake Camping & Cottage Resort (in Waymart), and the Delaware Water Gap/Pocono Mountain KOA Holiday (in East Stroudsburg).
We spent many springtime afternoons picking up sticks and stones. Pennsylvania winters are famous for falling sticks, and Pennsylvania has lots of rocks. Both chores seemed endless to us young kids.
Currently, I still operate the park, along with my mother, Eileen Vaughan, and brother, Joab Vaughan. The campground industry friends I grew up with are still involved, too.
WCM: Did you always see yourself staying in the campground business?
Vaughan: Every camper that came to Mountain Vista knew I was staying on at the campground. It was something from a very young age that I knew I would be choosing as an occupation. I mean, what better business is there than the hospitality business? And how great is it to be in a business where most of our customers are leisure travelers? It is a rewarding career path, for sure.
WCM: Did you attend and pursue any studies that could help you with campground management?
Vaughan: Growing up in the campground business, I always thought it was not only allowed — but required — working outside of the park, something that I think has changed for the betterment of the industry over the last 25 years. I did go off to college. We were fortunate to have a state university nearby. Meanwhile, I continued working at the campground. I chose to focus on hotel, restaurant, and tourism management and continued at East Stroudsburg University years later to get a master’s in business management and leadership, focusing on hospitality marketing.
WCM: What prompted you to get involved with PCOA and eventually seek to become the association’s executive director?
Vaughan: Pennsylvania has always had a strong association and strong commitment. My first involvement in PCOA was a call from our regional association director at the time, saying that every campground owner has to serve as director for two years. I went on the board of directors at the end of 2002 and continued to serve for 15 years.
It was a great opportunity, and I learned a lot about the industry and made a lot of great friends along the way. I had a lot of push and support from the board and many other states’ executive directors to move into the path of running PCOA. The industry was great in guiding me along that direction for several years before I agreed that I might be able to help better the association and support the industry that supported me for so many years.
WCM: What kinds of regulatory and competitive pressures have private parks faced in Pennsylvania in recent years?
Vaughan: It’s an interesting question to ask. When I got on the PCOA board, we had very little advocacy activity. Although there was pressure, I think that has accelerated today. We are blessed here in Pennsylvania to have been afforded the chance to get into advocacy, which is certainly one of the things that has made this a far more rewarding job.
Competition with state parks is always a big issue. We have been fortunate to have worked on their pricing differences, although we certainly aren’t on a level playing field yet. We are also working on an unlevel playing field with campground rentals, which we have been advocating for and making good progress as well.
Taxation, including fighting sales taxes and amusement taxes, and burdensome regulations that make little sense and have no clear direction for implementation, have also been an issue here in Pennsylvania. Regulation in Pennsylvania over the past 20 years has made campground construction almost impossible, but that is something that we are excited to see changing over the last several years: A great silver lining.
WCM: What have been PCOA’s biggest legislative and marketing successes since you became executive director?
Vaughan: Among our largest legislative successes has been partnering with the Pennsylvania tourism industry to help campgrounds avoid sales tax on camp sites, and the passage of amendments to Title 48, which provides parks with protections related to guest evictions and property abandoned by guests. Before Title 48 was amended, Pennsylvania parks were in dire straits due to the outdated legislation in place.
Regarding success in our marketing efforts, one of the first initiatives we took when I started as executive director was a complete website overhaul of www.pacamping.com and www.paoutdoorlodging.com. These refreshed websites were then supplemented by video and photo campaigns.
I would also say our directory has been a huge success. Conventional wisdom keeps insisting that print is dead, but due to popular demand, we have increased publication of the Pennsylvania camping directory by 50,000 copies and now have over 1,000 distribution points both in and out of state, which we find very exciting.
WCM: What exactly is Hospitality Connections? When was it established, and how does it interface with and benefit PCOA and its members?
Vaughan: Hospitality Connections is a national alliance that launched in 2024 to leverage and provide the benefits of group buying power to campground industry associations throughout the outdoor hospitality industry. It has great interaction with PCOA and its members.
Some of the benefit providers that we had with PCOA were excited to be part of a larger alliance that spread more nationwide. Hospitality Connections has interfaced with PCOA at many touchpoints — our convention, newsletters, and digitally. The members of PCOA are embracing many discount benefits of Hospitality Connections. PCOA had left other national groups with various group buying power options, so increasing member benefits was a key aspect of its most recent strategic plan.
WCM: Did you single-handedly create Hospitality Connections or was this an organization you created with business partners, other park owners or associations?
Vaughan: I had a heavy hand and involvement in the creation of Hospitality Connections, but there was a team with over a hundred years of combined experience in working with campground owners and benefit providers. We have a great team, and I have great respect and admiration for the team that has come together with me on this journey with the intention of creating alliances of RV parks and campgrounds.
WCM: How many state associations use Hospitality Connections?
Vaughan: Right now, we work with over 20 associations, mostly state, but a few regional/national as well, that were part of our initial rollout that covers almost 4,000 campgrounds. We have begun conversations with a few more associations now that we have completed the initial rollout.
WCM: Does Hospitality Connections have the potential to provide the same benefits OHI provides to its campground and RV park members at the national level?
Vaughan: Our goal is to create alliances between campgrounds and service providers. When looking at our benefits and what we envision for the future, we look at it through the eyes of a campground owner and the eyes of a state executive director, something our group has a unique strength in doing. We look at creating benefits that would add value and savings to a campground and its operations. We are not looking at competing with OHI or providing the same benefits as OHI. Rather, we are looking at creating opportunities and value for parks.
While we may cross the same space as OHI, we have different missions and goals. We would much rather collaborate to build the parts of the industry together. We will continue to focus on helping campground owners and RV parks throughout the country.
WCM: What is happening with PCOA’s membership? Are you picking up more members as a result of the association’s various legislative and marketing initiatives, including the benefits it provides through Hospitality Connections?
Vaughan: Membership is strong for the association. We are pleased that over the last few years, membership has grown. We are hopeful that we can continue this trend as well as retain current members. We are here to empower, unite, and support campgrounds in Pennsylvania. So, while increasing membership is a goal, our primary focus is on empowering, unitin,g and supporting.
WCM: What percentage of private campgrounds in Pennsylvania are PCOA members?
Vaughan: We have about 63% of private campgrounds in Pennsylvania.
WCM: It seems like the campground industry associations have always struggled to expand their membership base. What can PCOA and other associations do to change this?
Vaughan: It has been a struggle forever. And it’s not just in this industry. It is an association-wide issue currently. Keep doing the best you can for the members. PCOA members know that their board of directors and staff have walked their walk and that they want everyone to succeed. I think we and other associations need to just keep fighting and supporting our members. We need to create value and provide guidance. I think having those stories and member experiences shared with nonmembers, and creating a culture where members think of each other as family, is going to be the best way to keep growing.
WCM: What are the biggest threats you see private parks facing these days and how can PCOA help park operators address these challenges?
Vaughan: Privately owned campgrounds seem to always be subject to unfair competition from state or unregulated/unpermitted campgrounds, as well as burdensome regulations and taxes that come unvetted from legislatures that do not understand our industry. Sales/amusement property taxes seem to come about very quickly today. Of course, some of these weather-related events are also a huge challenge.
Pennsylvania is lucky that we have a lobbyist, and that we can have our staff in Harrisburg regularly. That is huge in helping fight those issues as well as educating legislators. To everyone reading this, campgrounds are misunderstood by many people in legislative positions who have not embraced the industry. You have to spend a lot of time repeatedly explaining what a campground is and explaining the industry, especially when new legislators and their staff come along.
In fact, we’re in Harrisburg now providing some of the economic data from RVIA and KOA, information on the types of RVs, and some basic information on campgrounds. With unrelenting effort, our industry is headed in the right direction, and PCOA is excited to be working on these challenges.
WCM: What are the biggest opportunities private park owners have right now?
Vaughan: It’s a great industry. It has grown in size and scope since its inception. People need recreation. People need leisure. And it’s an industry that is going to continue to grow in ways we may not have anticipated yet. There are many opportunities for campgrounds to reach a new generation of younger, more diverse campers than ever, who want new, unique outdoor experiences more than any other generation before them.
Campgrounds have evolved so that people can enjoy all the comforts of home as well as work or take classes from their RV. Campgrounds have the opportunity to attract these new consumers who are a great fit.
WCM: What are your biggest goals for PCOA and what do you hope to achieve for the association over the next few years?
Vaughan: Legislatively, we want to get our two bills passed. One bill levels the playing field with state parks regarding cabin and park model construction and exempts them from UCC. Also, legislatively, we have reintroduced our bill to end amusement taxes on Pennsylvania campgrounds. This is a rather new issue that we didn’t get to the finish line in 2024, but we think we have a better shot this coming year.
With our marketing efforts, we would like to further push out the reach of our directory. Our goal is to continue our growth and success with the directory. I’d like to see us increase by another 20,000 copies in the next few years.
For our convention, slated from Dec. 8-11 at Kalahari Pocono, which features one of the largest indoor water parks in the U.S. and one of the largest convention centers in Pennsylvania, we want to provide unparalleled seminars and networking opportunities.
I’ll end on a high note, mentioning that we’ve just purchased a second RV show to add to our roster. We are looking forward to promoting Pennsylvania camping through the addition of that second show.
WCM: PCOA owns RV shows?
Yes. We purchased a second RV show. We also own the York RV Show, which is held in March at the York Expo Center. I run the show, which attracts between 4,500 and 6,500 people and has 150,000 square feet of RVs. It also features 60 vendor booths, most of which are our member campgrounds.
At the show, we have almost 30 campground owners who volunteer to run the show. We have three areas with five halls. So, a lot of staff are needed to sell tickets and host the attendees. A lot of great volunteers put on the show. In fact, one of the kids who grew up in this industry, James Kesterke, is our board chairperson, and he spends five days at the show to make sure we get everything set up and running smoothly. I also attend the Hershey RV Show and the Tampa RV Show, but Anderson’s Brochure Distribution handles our literature distribution for both.
WCM: What do you see for the future at Mountain Vista Campground?
As for Mountain Vista’s future, I look forward to bringing along our third generation, Kamryn and Jonah, as they learn the business, while I continue to dedicate more of my time to the association and industry. They are still young, just starting to get involved, but they have both started to show interest in the business and enjoy the lifestyle and customers that they are interacting with. I think I have 10 years before they start running circles around us and take over operations.
