Bucking national trends in RV show attendance, the Tacoma Fall RV Show presented by BECU that ran October 3-6, 2024 at the Tacoma Dome posted an increase in attendance over the previous year’s show, officials said.
“We were cautiously optimistic coming into this show,” Show Manager and President of O’Loughlin Trade Shows, Bill O’Loughlin, stated in a release “Even though there were substantial market headwinds, given our promotion, the mix of dealers and products and dealer cooperation in messaging, we felt pretty good going into this show.”
“After 40 years of producing these shows,” he continued, “you never really know from one show to the next what the market reception is going to be. Fortunately, for our exhibitors, attendance was strong with nearly 6,000 paid attendees. For a fall show in this regional market that’s about as good as it gets for attendance.”
O’Loughlin’s PR Director, Trey Carskadon added, “On the marketing side of the equation our responsibility is to overcome the challenges in attracting qualified attendees to our shows. Thanks to the deep and productive relationships we’ve forged with our RV dealers, it really helps us stay in touch with what’s going on in the market. We use those understandings to tailor our message to the specific moment … relevance is essential.
“We are continually changing our promotional messages,” Carskadon continued. “For this show we knew with higher interest rates, an upcoming election, local pro and college sports playing in town and a soft local market for RVs that our statements had to be big and bold to attract buyers. With that we led with ‘deepest discounts in a decade’ – that message seemed to work well. And, just prior to the show interest rates fell half a percent and our presenting sponsor, BECU, offered a show-only rate which delivered even more savings to buyers.”
As one dealer observed on Saturday of the show, “After several long months of slow sales it feels like we’ve turned the corner. We’re seeing more buyers this week than we’ve seen in months.”
“We’ve evolved this show adding park models and quite a few destination trailers to the mix”, O’Loughlin said. “And unlike previous years, we saw a very strong selection of Class A, B and C motorhomes along with the regular line-up of travel trailers, fifth wheels, campers and toy haulers. Taken together, this product mix gave attendees a lot to look at and consider.”
O’Loughlin finished, “Our next show is January 23-26 at the Tacoma Dome. As with all the other shows we produced we’ll be working closely with our exhibitors to change our messaging and product mix to best fit the market in 2025.”
For complete Tacoma RV Show information visit www.TacomaRVShow.com.
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