t’s easy to find fault with a product, a service or a company for a perceived drawback. Among RVers, that often centers upon the quality — or sometimes the lack thereof — of their rigs. For example, owners seem to have a hard time when comparing the reliability of an RV and its myriad related componentry — built by hand — to their robot-constructed automobiles that have none of those systems on board. Show me a car or truck that came off the line with a full raft of kitchen appliances, a fully functioning bathroom, a bedroom, a dinette and multiple rooftop air-conditioners and I’ll show you a vehicle that’s probably not going to live through its warranty without visiting the dealership’s service bays.

To be sure, the industry’s growing pains have no doubt resulted in some units squeezing through the process that shouldn’t have. But at the risk of sounding like a cheerleader, the overall picture is one of an industry doing its utmost to equip North America’s outdoor enthusiasts with a safe and comfortable home when enjoying nature.

Sometimes, though, that means setting up camp in a primitive location because the RV park an owner wanted to stay at was booked…through the following year. Yes, the exploding popularity of camping — fueled by the pandemic — caught the outdoor hospitality arena by surprise, just as it did the rest of us. And, yes, campsites at popular destinations can be hard to come by. But I was surprised to learn just how hard the outdoor hospitality industry is working to make up for this shortfall.

As reported recently in Woodall’s Campground Magazine (WCM) — sister publication to RVBusiness — there are quite literally thousands of new campsites in the works. “I’ve never had more parks in the planning stage in my entire career,” Jayne Cohen of Campground Consulting Group LLC told Woodall’s. “And these are big parks, not little parks. Many of the ones I am working on are 100 to 300 acres, with a minimum of 250 sites — one park is 1,000 sites.”

According to WCM, based upon its staff’s contacts with park owners and developers, at least 15,200 new RV sites will have come online or will be added between 2021 and 2023. Of more interest, WCM has documented plans for at least 53 new campgrounds, 30 of which have already been announced. Add to that, the publication reported that Kampgrounds of America (KOA) anticipates building another 23 campgrounds in 14 states and two Canadian provinces — and will be adding 3,900 additional sites to its existing inventory of franchise parks.

River Sands RV Resort will, when complete, be a 275-site RV park in Ehrenberg, Arizona.

Among the parks that have either recently opened for business or are expected to by the end of 2023:

• Alabama: Gulf Shores RV Resort, Gulf Shores: 500 sites.
• Arizona: River Sands RV Resort, Ehrenberg: 275 sites. Village Camp Flagstaff: 76 RV sites.
• California: Coachella Lakes RV Resort, Coachella: 375 sites. Flying Flags Avila Beach, Port San Luis: 55 RV sites.
• Florida: Cabana Club RV Resort, Auburndale: 280 RV sites. Champions Run RV Resort, Ocala: 492 sites. Fort Pierce West KOA Holiday, Fort Pierce: 117 sites. Island Oaks RV Resort, Glen St. Mary: 385 sites. Oxford Springs RV Resort, Ocala:166 sites. Oxford Villages RV Park, Ocala Springs: 275 sites. Palm Breeze RV Resort, Punta Gorda: 205 RV sites. Santa Fe Palms RV Resort, Gainesville: 115 sites. Southern Sands RV Resort near Punta Gorda: 189 sites. Splash RV Resort and Water Park, East Milton: 351 RV sites. Sun Outdoors Islamorada, Islamorada: 82 RV sites. The Surf RV Resort, Palmetto: 449 sites. Tranquility Lake RV Resort, Cape Coral: 144 sites.
• Ohio: RVC Outdoors, Sandusky: 215 sites.
• South Carolina: Savannah Lake RV Resort, Hardeeville: 375 sites.
• Tennessee: Cherokee Outdoor Resort and Marina near Vonore: 238 sites. Campground on Watts Bar Lake, London: 189 sites.
• Texas: Soggy Dollar Camp, New Braunfels: 40 RV sites. Camp Fimfo, New Braunfels: 200 sites. Great Escapes RV Resort, Elgin: 208 sites. Great Escapes RV Resort, Bryan College Station: 304 RV sites. Great Escapes RV Park, Austin Oaks: 387 RV sites. Great Escapes San Antonio: 241 sites. The Retreat RV & Camping Resort on Lake Houston: 264 sites.

This list — as impressive as it is — doesn’t even address the dozens of existing campgrounds that have (or will be) substantially expanded.

These projects are all the more impressive when you stop to consider the effort required. This isn’t akin to a potential RVer writing a five- or six-figure check for a new fifth wheel — building a campground often costs millions of dollars and can take years to wade through the local and regional permit process and its development restrictions. “You have to clear the entitlement hurdles for water, sewer and power,” campground consultant Ron Beard said, adding, “a lot of states don’t have zoning in place, so they are limiting development by making septic rules tougher to clear.” Many of these new parks are also being built with cutting-edge amenities, which further drives costs.

Beyond that, the push for more parks has created the same sort of problems RVers needing repairs to their rig can empathize with. Suppliers to that industry, such as manufacturers of electrical pedestals, are fighting their own supply-chain issues to provide campgrounds with the necessary infrastructure components.

Obviously, it’s going to take years for the balance between supply and demand to find some sort of equilibrium — the balancing point where there are enough sites, yet campgrounds can continue to make money even during times when many sites will go unoccupied — but it’s coming. Watch for it. Until then, online sites such as Roadpass Digital’s Campendium (roadpass.com) and Harvest Hosts (harvesthosts.com) will help to bridge the gap with some truly unique boondocking locations.