RV Industry Association’s public relations staff recently served as on-the-ground guides in Elkhart, Ind., to a team of journalists from Agence France-Presse (AFP), an international news service that provides stories and content in six languages to media outlets in 151 countries.
During a snowy January day, AFP visited Grand Design and Riverside RVs where they toured the manufacturing facilities and conducted interviews with Grand Design President Don Clark and Director of Operations Support Ann Spratt, and General Manager Mervin Lehman at Riverside.
The story focused on RVs as bellwethers of the economy because they are discretionary purchases that consumers typically make when they’re feeling comfortable about their economic futures.
“In the northeastern patch of Indiana centered around Elkhart, the verdict from the RV industry appeared to be that the economy – a key factor in whether President Donald Trump is re-elected – seems strong, although a notch less than recently,” the AFP reported.
“A lot of people think that RVs are an economic indicator and in many ways it is, because an RV is not a have-to-have, it’s a want-to-have,” said Clark.
