RVIA_

THE RECREATION VEHICLE INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION educate people who work on RV repair; a government affairs department that lobbies the federal and state govern- ments on issues of interest to its mem- bers; a membership department; an IT department; and a shows department that produces two major conventions per year –one for consumers and one that is for industry partners, only. Broom says that RVIA keeps in touch with its members via several newslet- ters. “The RVIA Express goes out every two weeks. It updates members on what’s going on.We have a government affairs newsletter that goes out every two alternate weeks.And then, our standards and inspections department sends our materials, as well, on a pretty regular basis.We’re also in the midst of a complete IT overhaul; we’re redoing our entire IT structure, the idea being to become more data driven to get even better connected to what our members need and want, so we can deliver it for them.The first iteration will be some time during the summer, but it’s going to be a two-year process of building it out and getting everything integrated.” While the RV industry took a major hit during the Great Recession, Broom says that it has bounced back strongly.“RVs are large discretionary purchases.Most people borrowmoney to buy an RV and when the economy goes down and con- sumer confidence goes down, they’re not going to make an investment in an RV; they’ll hold off,” he explains.“During the recession,we had lots of pent up demand.We thought that demand would get released in our favor once the economy im- proved and that is what happened.Our last down year was 2009. But we’ve come back with seven consecutive years of growth.Last year was the high- est shipments we’ve had in several decades.We set a record last year andwe’re going to likely break that record, this year. So, the industry has come back very well.” In fact, in 2016, RV shipments totaled 430,961 units, a 15.1 percent increase over 2015, and the best annual total in 40 years. Broom also points out that six publicly-owned RV companies have created a stock index that further demonstrates the industry’s recent, solid growth.“If you had invested $10,000 into the RV stock index a year ago, that $10,000 would now be worth almost $15,400,”he states. And that’s a healthy rebound for an industry that was on the ropes only a few years ago.