Campground operators often recruit high school and college students to handle a variety of staffing needs during the peak summer season.
In many areas of the country, however, there simply aren’t enough local high school or college students to satisfy campground labor demands. As a result, many campgrounds work with companies such as Chicago-based Greenheart Exchange to fill their summer labor needs with college students from overseas.
But while park operators rave about the work ethic and performance of international students, these students are only here for a few months and never return, as Tricia Lombardo, district manager for The Jenkins Organization told attendees at the Campground Owners Expo in Branson, Mo. This brings up a critical question: What can park operators do to recruit American students who would like to develop a career in the private park sector?
Moreover, what can be done to encourage more universities to introduce students to careers in campgrounds, RV parks and resorts? There are hundreds of hospitality industry training programs at colleges and universities across the country. Few have any direct connection with private parks, however.
“Most of the hospitality programs are geared toward hotels instead of the outdoor hospitality industry,” said Ericka Garcia Travis, workforce development manager for Billings, Mont.-based Kampgrounds of America, Inc. (KOA).
KOA, however, has been working with universities across the country since 2022 to provide campground-specific training and internship opportunities for college students, several of whom have taken permanent jobs at KOA campgrounds.
The record-breaking RV sales and campground visitation that took place during the COVID-19 pandemic have also gotten the attention of university officials, who are now taking steps to develop educational programming specific to the outdoor hospitality industry.
One such example is Cal Poly Pomona, a Pomona, Calif.-based state university with a hospitality management college that has also been working to develop a curriculum specifically designed to introduce students to job and internship opportunities in the outdoor hospitality industry in both public and private parks.
KOA Offers Internships Through Universities Across the Country
KOA has been working with universities across the country since 2022 to develop internship programs that satisfy the curriculum requirements of universities that offer degree programs in hospitality management.
However, as KOA officials quickly discovered, universities are not interested in sending their students to participate in campground internship programs unless these internships provide specific education and training that meets each university’s degree requirements.
“(The internship) has to meet certain standards for them to consider it,” said Ericka Garcia Travis, KOA’s manager of workforce development, adding, “It has to be a real internship, and ensure that (the student is learning), and that it’s not just a job. We had to create a structured program to really open their eyes.”
To satisfy each university’s education requirements, KOA has developed 12-week college internship programs that include training in campground operations, marketing, administration and finance, Garcia Travis said.
“Interns are also required to develop a project that can be of benefit to the campground or to the KOA system,” she noted.
KOA launched its first 12-week college internship programs in 2023 in collaboration with five universities and one nonprofit training center, including:
- Baton Rouge Youth Coalition, a nonprofit organization that prepares high-achieving, under-resourced high school students to enter, excel in and graduate from college so they can become full participants in society.
- Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Fla.
- Colorado State University in Fort Collins
- Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge
- Montana State University in Billings
- San Diego State University in San Diego, Calif.
Eight KOA campgrounds also participated in these inaugural internship programs, including:
- Bellefonte / State College KOA Holiday in Bellefonte, Penn.
- Coloma / St. Joseph KOA Holiday in Benton Harbor, Mich.
- Ft. Collins / Lakeside KOA Holiday in Fort Collins, Colo.
- Hocking Hills KOA Holiday in Logan, Ohio
- Niagara Falls / Grand Island KOA Holiday in Grand Island, N.Y.
- Orlando Southwest KOA Holiday in Davenport, Fla.
- San Diego Metro KOA Resort in Chula Vista, Calif.
- Virginia Beach KOA Holiday in Virginia Beach, Va.
Bill Gottwals, KOA’s senior vice president of franchise operations, said one particularly challenging aspect of KOA’s college internship program is the requirement for students to identify an unmet need and figure out a solution. So far, KOA’s student interns have developed projects that include emergency action plans; solar panel projects for deluxe cabins and pool areas; new housekeeping procedures; and staff training in diversity, equity and inclusion.
One intern even developed a project using leftover fruits and vegetables to make nutrient-rich soil.
“Our intern then would collect all the compost, and bring it to the local farmers market in exchange for fresh fruits and vegetables that could be shared or sold at the KOA campground,” Garcia Travis said, adding, “By developing this project, we are contributing to a greener environment, supporting local farmers and sharing fresh food with the campground’s guests.
Garcia Travis said KOA’s internship program has been so successful that the franchise network is adding four more university partners this year, including:
- University of Nevada, Las Vegas
- University of Delaware in Newark
- College of Charleston in Charleston, S.C.
- Western Washington University in Bellingham
Clint Bell, whose family owns and operates the San Diego Metro KOA Resort as well as other KOA locations in California, Arizona and Missouri, said the internship program is a step in the right direction for the campground industry.
“The hope is to encourage sort of a pipeline of students,” he said, adding, “It’s been a nice two-way partnership.”
“I had such a great learning experience and so much support from my peers at KOA,” said Katrina Gutierrez, a student from San Diego State University who completed an internship at the San Diego Metro KOA Resort while pursuing a bachelor’s degree in recreation and tourism management.
Gutierrez was so enthused about KOA, in fact, that she invited representatives from KOA to participate in a “speed networking event” organized by San Diego State University’s Student Association.
“We got to expose students to what KOA had to offer,” she said, adding that efforts were underway to organize a tour of the San Diego Metro KOA Resort by the student association.
CalPolyPomona’s New Focus on Outdoor Hospitality
Margie Ferree Jones had been teaching at Cal Poly Pomona for just over three decades when she assumed a new role as dean of Cal Poly Pomona’s Collins College of Hospitality Management, which she assumed in July of 2023.
But Jones was also keenly aware of news reports regarding the dramatic increase in RV sales as well as consumer interest in camping and outdoor recreation that was precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. As she pondered ways to enhance Cal Poly Pomona’s hospitality management curriculum, she looked to the outdoor hospitality industry for ideas and worked with Margaret Bailey, an advisor with Ipswich, Mass.-based CHM Government Services, and Collins College Board of Advisors member, to recruit high-level speakers from across the country who could expose Cal Poly Pomona students to the many job opportunities and careers paths that exist in the outdoor hospitality industry in both public and private parks.
Topics for the lectureship series included not only campground and glamping resort management but also food and beverage services and campground industry consulting.
More than 200 students participated in the fall 2023 lecture series between Collins College Professor Ben Dewald’s “Introduction to the Hospitality” courses or in the lunch and learn sessions, which featured the following high-level speakers:
- Margaret Bailey, an advisor with CHM Government Services, who serves as a business consultant to municipal, state and federal land management agencies, including the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service as well as state and municipal park and recreation agencies.
- Susan Liston, senior vice president of growth for Philadelphia-based Aramark, which provides hospitality management services for state and national parks as well as hotels and conference centers across North America.
- Mike Lutz, executive chef and general manager of Doho Cafe at Doheny State Beach in Dana Point, Calif. Lutz is working to make Doho Cafe a destination for “California coastal cuisine.”
- Jeff Brown, marketing and business development manager for Vista Recreation, an outdoor hospitality management company headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz.
- Todd Wynne-Parry, managing director of New York City-based Horwath HTL, a global leader in hotel, tourism and leisure consulting. Wynne-Parry’s previous positions include chief growth office for AutoCamp.
Cal Poly Pomona complemented its lecture series with tours of Bonelli Bluffs RV Resort & Campground in San Dimas, Calif., which were led by Vista Recreation, which manages the resort on behalf of the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation, which owns the resort property.
Brown said he led his presentation in a section of the Bonelli Bluffs where the park plans to potentially set up furnished glamping tents.
“We wanted the students to make the connection between hospitality and outdoor hospitality,” Brown said. “We talked about the similarities of check-in, checkout and guest service between hotels and campgrounds.”
Brown also spoke to the students about Vista Recreation’s contract with the U.S. Forest Service to manage campgrounds as well as cabin accommodations. Many of the students had no concept of the career opportunities that existed in the outdoor hospitality industry or of the industry’s need for students with expertise and interest in everything from food and beverage services to marketing to campground and RV park management.
But this is precisely the kind of information that Jones wants students in the Cal Poly Pomona Collins College of Hospitality Management’s program to grasp.
“Instead of merely getting students across the commencement stage, we want to help them identify career paths,” she said, adding that she is “highly committed” to exposing Cal Poly Pomona students to career opportunities in the outdoor hospitality industry in both public and private parks.
As part of this effort, Brown complemented his presentation at Bonelli Bluffs with a follow-up discussion at the Cal Poly Pomona Collins College of Hospitality Management regarding Vista Recreation and his own career progression after he earned his degree in hospitality management at Florida International University.
Brown said he worked at hotels as a bellman, a waiter and a front desk staff member in high school and college before going through a management training program with Sheraton Hotels after graduating from college. He later held management positions with the Desert Princess Hotel in Cathedral City and Le Meridian Hotel in Coronado, Calif. before relocating to the island of Molokai in Hawaii, where he worked at an eco-tourism camp that was essentially a glamping resort. He subsequently worked at El Capitan Canyon, a glamping resort near Santa Barbara, Calif., before accepting a marketing and business development position with Basecamp Hospitality, which was later acquired by Vista Recreation.
Brown said his focus now is to develop an internship program for Vista Recreation with student interns from Cal Poly Pomona.
“We intend to do some recruiting with them,” he said, adding that Vista Recreation is also exploring the idea of collaborating with Cal Poly Pomona’s College of Environmental Design and Collins College of Hospitality Management to develop new designs for glamping units.
Cal Poly Pomona, in fact, has a history of collaborating with the campground industry to develop unique designs for rental accommodations. In 2014, architecture students from Cal Poly Pomona’s College of Environmental Design developed a new cabin concept that was so innovative it got the attention of California State Park officials as well as Phoenix, Ariz.-based Cavco Industries, which built a prototype unit using the students’ designs and shipped it to Sacramento, where it was featured at the California State Fair.
Unlike traditional cabins, the 156-square-foot unit, which Cal Poly Pomona students called “The Wedge,” has a unique 90-degree angle roof as well as other interesting design elements that give it a modern look. California State Parks subsequently purchased several Wedge units, all of which are made using recycled materials. The units are used as rental accommodations at Julia Pfieffer Burns State Park, near Big Sur; Angel Island State Park in the San Francisco Bay; and Calaveras Big Trees State Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains southeast of Sacramento.
