When visitors to Northeastern Indiana pick up a tourist guide from the Elkhart County Convention and Visitors Bureau, along with the listings for museums, gardens, hotels and restaurants is a page devoted to promoting Elkhart County’s biggest industry – the manufacture of recreational vehicles (RVs). One of the ways tourists can connect and get to know more about this important industry is through the factory tours that are listed inside the guide book, offered county and region-wide.
Factory tours are not a new tourist attraction. Depending on the manufacturer, some facilities have been open for tours for 20+ years and others are new to the process. Three manufacturers interviewed for this article utilize tours to connect with consumers and advertise their products.
Jayco began leading customers on tours through its plants in 1995, and built a visitor’s center to better accommodate the 2,600 visitors that take in the company’s manufacturing process on a yearly basis. At Grand Design, another Elkhart County manufacturer who also offers a tour, about 250 people visit their factories annually. A third manufacturer, The RV Factory, which manufactures Luxe luxury toy-hauler fifth wheels, has a tour count average of about 100 people.
John MacDonald, Corporate Brand Ambassador and chief tour guide for Jayco, said the factory tours he offers is not a one-stop-shop. Instead, visitors are taken by trolley from the 1880s farmhouse that serves as the visitor center, to either a motorhome or travel trailer plant, and then are provided the opportunity to walk through some of the company’s newest models on their return to the visitor’s center.
Jayco’s tour approach has been consistent for years, MacDonald said.
“I’ve been conducting factory tours since 2004, and they’re pretty much the same today as they were then,” he explained. “One change is that we no longer include our sewing plant on the tour…because it no longer exists.”
The RV Factory is a direct to consumer manufacturer so their tours are essential for letting people know about their models. They have offered personal tours by appointment, as well as accommodating walk-ins for five years.
“People want to know why we are different and considered luxury fifth wheel construction,” said Luxe’s marketing manager Ed Kiefer. “They are surprised to find out we are several levels of craftsmanship above the typical fifth wheel construction.”
Jayco Pinnacle fifth wheel in the process of manufacture. [Photo/Ed Kiefer]
The RV Factory also has a showroom in Texas and visitors can take a tour of products there using a robot to communicate directly with visitors. Tours are amended when new technology or new features are added to the line, he said.
“We can engage our customers in a conversation and walk with them to view our product and to answer any questions they might have about our luxury fifth wheels,” Kiefer said about the Texas location.
Grand Design has found a way to make its factory tours more applicable to individuals and has been fine tuning its approach since 2013 when the company began manufacturing its brand.
“We have expanded the reach of our tours to show people different stages of the manufacturing process,” explained Matt Chupp, marketing representative for Grand Design. “We have also added flexibility to which tour we offer customers based on when they request.”
The tour takes visitors to manufacturing facilities where they are given an overview as to what goes into the construction of that brand.
“They are shown the quality of the materials and parts that go into making a coach a Grand Design coach,” Chupp said.
For RV companies, offering factory tours are a way to interact with customers as well as attract potential customers to their RVs and trailers. Factory tours attract both, marketing representatives said.
“Some people are in the market to purchase one of our products, some are owners that recently purchased and want to see the process for themselves and some people even come hoping to see their specific coach come down the assembly line,” Chupp said. “People are surprised with how clean our facilities are and impressed with the detail that goes into the construction of our products.
Those taking the Jayco tours come for similar purposes.
“The majority of our tour guests are people who either own a Jayco product or are considering the purchase of a Jayco product and those who want to see how they’re built,” MacDonald explained. “So a factory tour can often help a prospective customer in their decision-making process, and it can delight a current Jayco owner who wants to see where his or her Jayco was born.”
He added, “I think most people, especially if they’ve toured an automotive manufacturing plant, are surprised to discover how little automation is used in our manufacturing process.”
For Luxe, tours serve several purposes both for the customer and the manufacturer.
“Because of our unique direct to consumer model, a tour greatly benefits the customer because they can see, touch, measure and discuss their unique personal desires with someone that can give them an educated direction to fulling their desires,” Kiefer said. “It also benefits us as a company because we get to speak directly to the end buyer to get a much better feel for what they want. Also, we get direct feedback and ideas from them which we may incorporate into the innovation of our product.”
The hope is for the consumer to “walk away from one of our tours and say, ‘now that's a quality built luxury fifth wheel and this company has excellent construction practices. And I don't have to settle for a substandard RV’,” Kiefer said.
The tours are an impactful option in explaining the Grand Design mission and process, Chupp said.
“We offer these because there is no better demonstration of the company we have set out to be,” he said. “We have a saying that the more people know about Grand Design the more likely they are to be a Grand Design customer. The tours allow us to offer even more transparency into the way we do business.”
With tours averaging from 1 ½ to 2 ½ hours, visitors are inundated with a lot of information. From the features that differentiate one model from another to finding the right RV to appeal to a consumer, manufacture representatives extol the value of the tours. Whether it is in the top-of-the-line luxury features in the Luxe fifth wheels, the Grand Design process at work, or the manufacturing process honed at the Jayco plants, tours give consumers a close-up view and an opportunity to see and touch the product they are considering purchasing.
“We hope the tour will assure both prospective buyers and current Jayco owners that the Jayco product they are considering or already own is the best-built RV in the industry and will provide them (as stated in our tag line) with Generations of Family Fun,” MacDonald said. “We hope that the folks who take our tour just for the fun of it will have a memorable experience.”
To sign up for these and other tours offered at RV factories, visitors can sign up online at the manufacturers’ websites or by contacting the manufacturer directly. Tours are given on most weekdays, and The RV Factory is open for tours on Saturday.