Campers Shrug Off Inflation — But Finding Sites Is Still Difficult

Prices may be going up on everything from eggs to e-bikes, but Americans continue to show up for camping.

That’s the conclusion of a 2024 report from camping app The Dyrt, which surveyed several thousand of the 81.1 million Americans who enjoyed some form of camping last year, whether with a tent, trailer, or RV. Despite rising prices impacting much of the U.S. economy last year, four out of five respondents said the country’s inflation hadn’t curtailed the frequency of their camping plans.

In fact, other stats from the survey suggest a renewed commitment to enjoying the outdoors. More than 70% of campers in 2024 said they used all their reservations — a significant increase from the 59% who used them all in 2023.

The report did find that the overall number of campers in 2024 declined slightly compared to 2023. However, the long-term trend shows more Americans showing interest in getting outside. While 2023 saw 21 million first-time campers, that jumped to 26.8 million in 2024, according to The Dyrt. The report relied on an October survey of 1,000 U.S. residents and 5,000 app users and campground managers across the country.

“In a wild year of economic and political uncertainty, it heartens me to think: We will always camp,” The Dyrt founder Sarah Smith wrote in the report. “Some trends may come and go, but the need to connect with nature — and to connect with one another in nature — is what helps humans stay grounded.”

Finding Campsites Remains a Problem

While camping remains popular, it’s not always easy to find a place to do it.

From 2019 to 2022, the number of campers who reported difficulty finding a campsite rose from 10.6% to 58.4%, according to the 2025 Camping Report Presented by Toyota Trucks. After falling to 45.5% in 2023, it bounced back to 56.1% in 2024.

Most of the problems booking sites resulted from campgrounds that were already full, according to the report.

“Campsites are being added at private campgrounds all over the country to accommodate the growing number of campers,” The Dyrt CEO Kevin Long said in the report. “The difficulty in finding sites these days is more concentrated in the highly competitive public campgrounds and at certain sought-after properties and parks that have gained a level of fame in recent years.”

And while Americans may find ways to camp even with higher prices, inflation is still driving up the prices of campsites as well. Just under 39% of properties increased prices in 2024, a slight decrease from the 45.3% that did so in 2023.

Of those properties that did increase prices, 78.7% cited inflation as a factor. And over a third of camping properties surveyed by The Dyrt said they’re likely to raise prices again in 2025.

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