Report Highlights

Who Controls the RV Parks and Campground Market - and Who Is Challenging That

Sun Communities and Equity LifeStyle Properties (ELS) together control the institutional tier of this market, collectively owning and managing more than 300 properties and over 120,000 MH and RV sites across the continental United States. Their competitive moat is structural: REIT tax efficiency, access to low-cost capital, and the ability to cross-sell RV park memberships alongside manufactured housing communities. Kampgrounds of America (KOA) commands the largest branded franchise network, with over 500 locations globally, leveraging brand recognition and a tiered product architecture — Journey, Holiday, and Resort — to capture price-sensitive campers and premium experiential travelers simultaneously.

The most credible challengers are private equity-backed consolidators including Carefree Communities and Northgate Resorts, which are acquiring independent parks at scale and investing in amenity upgrades to drive RevPAS (revenue per available site). Outdoor Hospitality Group and Sun Outdoors are growing through regional cluster strategies, creating operational density that reduces management overhead. For the competitive order to shift meaningfully, a challenger would need to either replicate ELS's balance sheet depth or secure an exclusive technology platform that allows independent operators to compete at institutional service standards — neither of which is imminent.

RV Parks and Campground Dynamics: How the Market Operates Today

The market operates across two distinct ownership tiers: institutional REIT-owned or private equity-managed parks, and the fragmented independent segment comprising roughly 60% of the approximately 16,000 commercial campgrounds in the United States. Revenue is generated through nightly, weekly, monthly, and annual site rentals, supplemented by cabin and glamping unit fees, amenity charges, retail sales, and membership programs such as Thousand Trails' Zone Pass. Pricing mechanisms range from dynamic yield management at larger operators to fixed seasonal rates at independents. Booking channels have shifted substantially toward online platforms, with Campspot and ReserveAmerica handling a growing share of transactional volume.

The market is in active consolidation, with institutional buyers acquiring independent parks at an accelerating pace since 2020. Technology is reshaping operations through reservation management software, dynamic pricing engines, and app-based guest services. On the regulatory side, zoning restrictions in high-demand Western markets — particularly California and Colorado — are constraining greenfield supply, creating a supply-demand imbalance that supports rate increases at existing facilities. Environmental permitting timelines for new campground development in National Forest adjacent areas now average 18 to 24 months, further insulating established operators from new competition.

RV Parks and Campground Demand Drivers

The single most powerful demand driver is the sustained increase in RV ownership, which surged past 11.2 million units in U.S. households by 2023 according to the RV Industry Association — a 26% increase from 2018. Each new RV owner represents recurring annual demand for campsite nights, directly expanding the addressable customer base for park operators. The pandemic-era shift toward domestic leisure travel permanently converted a segment of hotel and airline travelers into outdoor hospitality consumers, and that behavioral shift is reinforced by the relative cost advantage of RV camping over hotel stays, which averaged USD 150 per night versus USD 55 for a full-hookup RV site in 2023.

Demographic tailwinds are compounding supply-side pressure. Baby Boomers entering retirement — at a rate of 10,000 per day through 2030 — are the heaviest users of long-term and seasonal RV sites, driving demand for extended-stay amenities and 55-plus communities within RV parks. Simultaneously, Millennial and Gen Z campers are entering the market through tent camping and van life, with KOA's 2024 North American Camping Report documenting that 47% of new campers in 2023 were under age 40. This generational diversification is widening the demand base and lengthening the seasonal window as younger campers camp year-round at higher rates than prior generations.

Restraints Limiting RV Parks and Campground Growth

Land acquisition and zoning constraints represent the primary structural restraint on market expansion. In coastal California, the Pacific Northwest, and the Colorado Front Range — the three highest-demand campground regions in the country — new commercial campground permitting is effectively frozen due to environmental review requirements, wildfire buffer zone regulations, and municipal opposition to transient lodging development. This supply ceiling is most damaging for mid-tier operators seeking to enter premium markets, as brownfield conversion sites in these regions carry acquisition costs that render new development economically unviable without premium pricing power that only established branded operators can command.

Labor availability and cost inflation are the most acute cyclical restraints. Campground operations require year-round maintenance staff, seasonal customer service personnel, and increasingly, technology support roles — all competing in tight rural labor markets where wage inflation outpaced CPI in 2022 and 2023. Independent operators, who lack the HR infrastructure and benefits packages of institutional players, are disproportionately affected. Additionally, insurance cost escalation tied to wildfire and flood risk in the Western and Southeastern United States is compressing operating margins at parks in high-exposure geographies, with some independent operators in California reporting premium increases exceeding 40% between 2021 and 2023.

RV Parks and Campground Opportunities

The most immediately accessible opportunity is the conversion of underperforming independent parks into branded franchise or managed properties. KOA's franchise model and Sun Outdoors' management contract program both offer independents access to reservation technology, marketing infrastructure, and operational standards they cannot build organically. With an estimated 9,600 independent commercial campgrounds in the United States, many operating below 60% occupancy and carrying aging infrastructure, the conversion pipeline is substantial. Operators who move aggressively on management contract acquisition in the Southeast — where land costs remain low and outdoor recreation participation is growing fastest — will capture outsized returns over the next five years.

International expansion represents a structurally underexploited opportunity, particularly in Western Europe and Australia, where RV ownership is growing but institutional campground management remains fragmented. Sun Communities' acquisition of Park Holidays UK in 2021 for USD 1.3 billion validated the cross-border thesis. Europe's estimated 25,000 campgrounds are overwhelmingly family-owned and operated, presenting a replication opportunity for U.S.-style yield management and amenity-driven revenue strategies. In Australia, the self-contained campervan segment grew 18% in 2022 alone, and the absence of any KOA-equivalent national brand creates a first-mover advantage for a well-capitalized operator willing to commit to a 10-site anchor network.

Market at a Glance

RV Parks and Campgrounds by Region

North America dominates global revenue, accounting for over 78% of total market value in 2024, driven by the United States' mature RV ownership culture, extensive federal and state park infrastructure, and the density of commercial campground operators. Within the U.S., the South Atlantic region — encompassing Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas — is the highest-revenue sub-region due to year-round operating seasons. Canada is a growing secondary market, with British Columbia and Ontario seeing consistent occupancy growth above the national average. Europe is the fastest-growing region globally, with France, Germany, and the Netherlands leading campground modernization investment and experiencing structural demand growth from domestic tourism and "staycation" culture post-pandemic.

Asia Pacific is an emerging market with meaningful long-term potential, concentrated in Australia and New Zealand where RV culture is well established, and nascent growth markets in Japan and South Korea where government rural tourism initiatives are funding campground infrastructure. Latin America remains pre-institutional, with Argentina and Brazil showing rising glamping demand among urban middle-class consumers but lacking the operator infrastructure to absorb institutional capital at scale. The Middle East and Africa segment is negligible in current revenue terms but is seeing UAE-based operators invest in desert glamping facilities catering to domestic and Gulf tourism, a segment growing at double-digit rates from a very low base.

Leading Market Participants

• Kampgrounds of America (KOA)
• Sun Communities
• Equity LifeStyle Properties
• Carefree Communities
• Thousand Trails (Northgate Resorts)
• Sun Outdoors
• Outdoor Hospitality Group
• Good Sam Enterprises
• Jellystone Park Camp-Resorts
• Harvest Hosts

Competitive Outlook for RV Parks and Campgrounds

Over the next five years, the competitive structure will bifurcate decisively. The institutional tier — anchored by ELS, Sun Communities, and PE-backed consolidators — will continue acquiring independent parks, pushing branded or managed site share from roughly 40% today toward 55% by 2029. These operators will invest in dynamic pricing platforms, app-based guest experience tools, and loyalty programs that create switching costs for frequent campers. The independent tier will not disappear, but operators without access to reservation technology and marketing infrastructure will see occupancy rates fall relative to branded alternatives, accelerating divestiture pressure.

The single most important competitive development to watch is whether a major hospitality technology company — specifically a Booking Holdings or Airbnb — deepens its investment in outdoor accommodation inventory aggregation. Airbnb already lists over 150,000 unique outdoor stays globally. If it deploys dynamic revenue management tools specifically optimized for campsite inventory, it disintermediates park operators from their direct booking relationships, fundamentally altering the customer acquisition cost structure that currently favors branded operators. KOA and ELS have both invested in proprietary booking platforms precisely to prevent this scenario, but the threat is structural and will intensify as outdoor hospitality scales.