RV Lifestyle According to the Canadian Camping and RV Council, at least 50,000 full-time users of recreational vehicles who usually spend their winters in the U.S. Sunbelt had to find a site north of the border. Thousands of those snowbirds converged on southern B.C., packing full-service campgrounds to wait out the winter, according to tourism and lodging groups in the province. About 100 private-sector campgrounds are open year-round, most of them in southern B.C. Full-time RVers have been wintering here for years. The difference this year is that snowbirds had nowhere else to go. By mid-July, numerous RV parks reported 100 people on their winter wait-list. They were from everywhere in the country that’s cold. On a small island in British Columbia’s Fraser River is a campground packed with Canadian snowbirds who found refuge when the border with the United States was closed. Unlike other years, all 118 full-service sites at Fort Camping in Langley are occupied. It started in March 2020, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Canadians around the world to come home. Taking no chance on the border reopening, many booked Fort Camping for the winter. They sensed that they would be in deep trouble come winter with the border closed and nowhere to go. At Fort Camping, most have satellite/cable TV, internet, food services nearby and numerous walking paths and hiking trails. And this area is surrounded by water, mountains and parks. Florida is the most popular winter destination for Canadians who routinely head south for the season with about half a million visiting the state in a normal year. Roughly 3.5 million Canadians − including non-snowbirds − visit the state each year and spend approximately $6.5 billion. The second most popular destination is Arizona. According to the Arizona Office of Tourism, around 964,000 Canadian visitors were responsible for $1 billion of the $26.5 billion in tourism spending last year. This past September, visitors spent $752 million overall, but that’s down 60 per cent from the $1.9 billion expected in a normal year. Worth Pondering… The little reed, bending to the force of the wind, soon stood upright again when the storm had passed over. −Aesop CSANews | SPRING 2021 | 23
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