Costs could also be going up on every little thing from eggs to e-bikes, however People proceed to indicate up for tenting.
That’s the conclusion of a 2024 report from tenting app The Dyrt, which surveyed a number of thousand of the 81.1 million People who loved some type of tenting final yr, whether or not with a tent, trailer, or RV. Regardless of rising costs impacting a lot of the U.S. economic system final yr, 4 out of 5 respondents stated the nation’s inflation hadn’t curtailed the frequency of their tenting plans.
The truth is, different stats from the survey counsel a renewed dedication to having fun with the outside. Greater than 70% of campers in 2024 stated they used all their reservations — a major enhance from the 59% who used all of them in 2023.
The report did discover that the general variety of campers in 2024 declined barely in comparison with 2023. Nevertheless, the long-term development exhibits extra People exhibiting curiosity in getting outdoors. Whereas 2023 noticed 21 million first-time campers, that jumped to 26.8 million in 2024, based on The Dyrt. The report relied on an October survey of 1,000 U.S. residents and 5,000 app customers and campground managers throughout the nation.
“In a wild yr of financial and political uncertainty, it heartens me to assume: We are going to at all times camp,” The Dyrt founder Sarah Smith wrote within the report. “Some traits might come and go, however the necessity to join with nature — and to attach with each other in nature — is what helps people keep grounded.”
Discovering Campsites Stays a Downside
Whereas tenting stays widespread, it’s not at all times straightforward to discover a place to do it.
From 2019 to 2022, the variety of campers who reported issue discovering a campsite rose from 10.6% to 58.4%, based on the 2025 Tenting Report Offered by Toyota Vans. After falling to 45.5% in 2023, it bounced again to 56.1% in 2024.
A lot of the issues reserving websites resulted from campgrounds that have been already full, based on the report.
“Campsites are being added at personal campgrounds all around the nation to accommodate the rising variety of campers,” The Dyrt CEO Kevin Lengthy stated within the report. “The problem to find websites nowadays is extra concentrated within the extremely aggressive public campgrounds and at sure sought-after properties and parks which have gained a stage of fame in recent times.”
And whereas People might discover methods to camp even with larger costs, inflation remains to be driving up the costs of campsites as properly. Slightly below 39% of properties elevated costs in 2024, a slight lower from the 45.3% that did so in 2023.
Of these properties that did enhance costs, 78.7% cited inflation as an element. And over a 3rd of tenting properties surveyed by The Dyrt stated they’re prone to elevate costs once more in 2025.
