Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adam Donnelly

RECREATION

Boat and RV sales in Kamloops up significantly during COVID-19 pandemic

Jul 28, 2020 | 4:33 PM

KAMLOOPS — Have you noticed a shiny new boat or RV in your neighbour’s drive-way this summer? That wouldn’t be surprising, especially considering many RV and boat dealers are reporting higher than usual sales throughout the spring and summer. According to a pair of Kamloops businesses, the pandemic might have a part to play in bumping up their numbers.

A minute without customers at Dominic’s Marine in Kamloops gives Frank Lucia a second to catch his breath. The store has been going ahead full throttle for much of the pandemic.

“May rolled around, and people decided what better way to social distance than be on the water,” Lucia suggests. “Our boat sales just skyrocketed. We pretty much sold out of most of our boats in the month of May.”

Lucia has since been able to re-stock but says he’s still been much busier than previous summers. He notes many of his customers are brand new to boat ownership.

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“I think between 15-20 per cent,” Lucia says. “We’ve seen an increase in those numbers of new boaters, first-time boaters purchasing boats.”

The number of new boating licenses back that up. In April in BC, 253 new boating licenses were issued. In May, 374, and in June, almost 700 new boating licenses were granted. Over on Tranquille Road, Len Root, manager of Butler Auto and RV, has noticed a similar trend.

“Young families wanting to get out there and enjoy the freedoms with their families,” Root says. “Knowing that they can’t really get in an airplane or travel to the [United] States, or to Italy and some of the other places. [A] dramatic increase in sales.”

According to Root, Butler has sold significantly more RV stock through this point in the summer than in previous years.

“Typically, this time of year, our inventory numbers would be around 90-100 RV pieces on the lot, new” Root tells CFJC Today. “Currently, we’re at ten, at the moment. New ones are ordered, of course, and will be trickling in over the next week to ten days.”

So what’s driving this increase? Root has his theory: “Freedom. The ability to change your scenery every weekend. To go to different spots, enjoy different things, travel with different groups, different people, to different areas. Freedom.”

With summer weather finally arriving, there’s no better time to hit the road or head out on the water.

“Now that we’re in this heatwave here, I think people are going to get more excited,” Lucia says. “We’ll probably see a few more sales.”