Strong attendance and robust sales activity highlighted RVIA’s 64th California RV Show, held Oct. 7-16 at the Fairplex in Pomona, CA.
Total attendance at the 10-day retail event was 38,946 attendees, a 10 percent increase over the 35,148 attendees last year.
“The show got off to a great start during our opening weekend with the gate jumping by nearly 23% to more than 17,400 people,” said Liz Crawford, RVIA’s senior vice president of trade shows and events. “Even more encouraging was high level of business activity and the strong interest among consumers about RV travel and camping throughout the event. Our dealers and other exhibitors were very happy with their success at the show.”
“We sold more RVs than we did last year,” said Dick Torres, general manager for Giant RV, which has locations throughout Southern California. “Over 80 percent of our customers were first-time buyers, which is exciting. Out partners Winnebago, Thor and Forest River all had a big show.”
Manufacturers at the show were pleased with the business activity as well. “The customers who are visiting the show this year were buying. Through the first weekend, we had already sold almost as many Forest River Cardinal fifth wheels as the year before.” said Larry Meredith with Forest River. “Needless to say, we are both happy and excited about our experience at this year’s event.”
“Our sales results were the best we ever had,” added Gary Conley with Lance Camper. “RVIA did an excellent job in improving the show experience, and the Lance buyers were very complimentary of the show.”
“Consumers converged in Pomona from all over the country,” said RVIA’s Tom Gaither, event director. “We conducted consumer research at the show through an activation center hosted by Go RVing, and we saw folks from the East Coast, Utah, Colorado and from up and down the Pacific Coast.” The final research conducted will be available in the next few weeks, but RVIA says that the robust activity at the show is a good thing for the show, the industry and the market out west.
Celebrating its 64th year, this California RV Show featured 26 dealers from throughout the state showcasing 1,325 RVs across more than one million square feet of exhibit space.
The 65th California RV Show is set for Oct. 5-16, 2017.
