Many caravans rarely used
A third of Aussie RVs used for less than two weeks a year, according to surveyHow many days in a year do you use your caravan, camper trailer or motorhome?
Whether it cost less than $20,000 or well over $100,000, an RV is a serious investment for most people, and like other big-ticket items such as cars or houses you’d expect it to be used accordingly.
However, new figures released by the Caravan Industry Association of Australia suggest that a lot of caravans and campers sit around unused for much of the year.
According to the latest 'RV Consumer 2018' report, which highlights data from a consumer study of 2541 RV owners as well as non-owners, as many as one in five owners used their RV for less than seven nights over a 12-month period.
Around a third of the RV owners surveyed used their RV between 13 to 30 nights a year, followed by 31 to 99 nights (21%) and between eight and 14 nights (19%).
Combining the results of the two lower-use categories, more than a third of the RV owners used their RV for two weeks or less in a year -- a surprising result given many Australians have access to four weeks of annual leave.
The results mean potentially hundreds of thousands of caravans and campervans are sitting around gathering dust, given there are close to 700,000 RVs registered in Australia.
A small proportion of those surveyed (9%) cited the cost of RV travel, including fuel costs, as a good reason to stay at home, while others pointed the finger at some of the downsides of RV travel, like setting-up and towing a large caravan.
Not surprisingly, around a quarter of former RV owners surveyed said they had sold their RV due to lack of use.
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