My first two RV shows are in the books. Here’s a recap of what I learned and who I met

I’m heading to Huntsville, AL, for my next round of seminars at RV shows. The weather this year has been unbelievable—both good and not so good. Two weeks ago I flew to Nashville and they got 2” of snow and then it stayed below freezing. The city of Nashville is not prepared for that and the people there do not like it. When we landed it took over an hour for the ground crew to get the jet bridge to the plane because of the snow! They had to pull the plane forward 20’ to a dry spot. Ironically, the plane was full of people from Northern Iowa and Minnesota, and we all told the flight crew to let us drive!

The first day of the show was Friday, January 19. With the cold weather and snow that turned to ice, hardly anyone came to the show. However, it turned out to be a good day for me as one of our longtime, loyal readers braved the icy roads and came to see the seminars. His name is Neal Davis and he reads RVtravel.com every day. Below is a photo of us together at the show. Neal is the taller, good-looking one… but who’s counting? I should have stood on my tippy toes like I do for our family Christmas photo!

Neal owns a Newmar diesel pusher and sat through most of the seminars, which was great because we had a couple looking to purchase a unit and live in it for at least a year. They had a medical issue come up with a parent and were putting their house on the market the next week and moving to be close to them. Neal and I had one-on-one or two-on-two conversations for a long time. Those made them feel much more comfortable with their shopping experience. Neal was a wealth of firsthand information. Thanks, Neal! [BTW, Neal. Diane and all of our writers say to please keep posting your always-positive and upbeat comments. We sure do appreciate them!]

The next day…

What a difference a day makes! Saturday the sun came out and, even though it was still below freezing, the crowds came out, as well. I pulled into the parking lot at 10:15 a.m. and it was full, with a swarm of people walking to the ticket office.

This was the RV Truck/Trailer Driving and Towing Seminar, and it was almost full. The RV Buyers Seminar had standing room only with several people standing in the aisle to the side of the seminar. They had record attendance on Saturday, and the dealers said that sales were running better than last year. Overall, the attendance was close to the same as last year, which was a good year.

Mobile and Chicago RV shows were up in attendance and sales

RV Supershows conducts over a dozen shows from January through March and has some weekends with two or more shows. Earlier I posted a photo of Kip and John from the Mobile Show. They are currently looking at a Thor with a full-length slide and have concerns about the rollers not being the recommended 24″-30” distance. Kip and John actually got to talk with a customer service rep at Thor, who advised them to use a 3-track system so spacing is not as critical. They are going to send some photos and a schematic so I can research it a little further. Hopefully they will be in Huntsville, this weekend as I am doing seminars there.

Here is a photo of Kevin and Colleen, from Louisiana, who are avid RVtravel.com readers and stopped by the last day at Mobile.

The Mobile show was up 24% in traffic and the Chicago show was up 26%, not bad for what the doom-and-gloom reports are for high interest and expensive gas! Plus, the dealers were selling, especially Great American RV SuperStores as they had a fog horn and whistle ceremony every time a sale was made and it was blasting off all the time.

“Do as many shows as possible”

This is the first year I have done shows in Mobile, Nashville, Huntsville, and Bedford for RV Supershows. I did seminars for them in Harrisburg for the past two years and Rob, the show promoter, asked me to do as many shows as possible this year.

Here is a quote from the show promoter, which has produced more than 1,600 shows nationwide for the past 37 years.

It was truly a great weekend! The Chicago show was up 26% and Mobile was up over 24% over last year!

Dealers reported good sales at both of our events with General RV achieving a new show record in Chicago.

In a time with the RV industry where sales were down 20% to 30%, depending on who you talk to, I felt it was important to come out this year with more entertainment value and get customers more motivated about getting off the couch and coming to the show.

Our exclusive contract with Marvel, new seminar series, and Camper giveaway set the stage and separate RV Supershows from the competition!

Our new digital model and branding efforts are resulting in over 70,000 hits a month on our website. We are reaching every possible profile and demographic in the RV lifestyle. For the first time in many years, I actually talked to people who have never been to an RV show.

I see a resurgence in interest, which should translate into new sales within the next 14 months. If you look at the timing of the election in 2024, I believe 2025 will be back to record sales for the industry.

Upcoming RV shows

If anyone is in the Huntsville, AL, area this weekend, Charleston, SC, next weekend, or Harrisburg, PA, January 22-25, come to the show and see me. I will also be in Bedford, NH, March 22-24.

See more upcoming RV shows here.

Dave Solberg is a leading expert in the RV industry and author of the “RV Handbook” as well as the Managing Editor of the RV Repair Club.

Read more from Dave here. 

##RVT1142