NEWS RELEASES
Editor's Note: This news item was retrieved and first published through Los Angeles Times's website.
Despite the shutdowns and other coronavirus related issues, numbers are increasing at many public and private California campgrounds, their operators say. Nick Devane, founder and chief executive of Texino, a company that rents and customizes camping vans, says his business has seen record bookings. During the same period hotels and airports are seeing decreases in use. Los Angeles Times writer, Christopher Reynolds, covers in his article, "The California State Parks camping reservation system has also seen a surge — 97,417 reservations made from Feb. 1-March 11, up from 54,825 during the same period last year, spokesman Jorge Moreno said. During the same period, cancellations dipped from 14,248 to 11,992." Within the hotel industry, occupancy has been dropping. Industry analyst STR reported March 11 that U.S. hotel occupancy March 1-7 dropped 7.3% from the year before, even though rates were 4.6% lower. At the Ventura Ranch KOA between Ojai and Santa Paula, which has room for about 148 RVs and 25 tents, owner Scott Cory said February bookings were 14% ahead of last year and the first 11 days of March were 4% ahead of last year.
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