While attendance was down slightly from last year, local RV dealers reported more sales activity at the 2019 Jacksonville Fall RV Show, held for the first time at the Clay County Fairgrounds.
“We saw 500 fewer guests than last year, but more people came to look and to buy compared to last year at the Morocco Shrine Center,” said FRVTA Northeast Region Six President Ken Loyd. “I think that’s because of the location last year, many of the people were just stopping in to see what was going on. At the fairgrounds, there’s not a lot of that drive-by traffic like in town; you’re coming to Green Cove Springs specially to see the show.”
About 4,100 people came by to see 100 new RVs from participating RV dealers, including Campers Inn RV, Creative RV, General RV Center, and Ocean Grove RV Supercenter.
“It was a different clientele at the fairgrounds, with a lot less interest in the drive-ables than we saw near the (St. Johns) Town Center, but that wasn’t unexpected since the fairgrounds are in our backyard and we know this market well,” said General RV Sales Manager Steve Nottingham. “Also, we only had about half the number of RVs on display here compared to last year – about 55 units. However, with all that being said, we had an extremely good show and good sales. We just had to bring several customers back to our store so they could see the other inventory.”
Loyd said the dealers at the show all reported sales, so most of the attendees came to the show very interested in RVing or ready to make a purchase.
“Every dealer I talked to reported sales activity, and everybody was very happy with the turnout, especially given it was the first time at this location,” Loyd said. “Everybody involved in the show was upbeat.”
Loyd said that, while there were some “bugs” that needed to be worked out – most of them involving parking and the amount of space for RVs, he said that was to be expected. Loyd and the FRVTA will be talking to the fairgrounds about returning in 2020.
“It would be nice to have more room to display more RVs next year, and that’s something we can look at when we talk to them about 2020,” he said. “But we enjoyed a great relationship with the people with the Clay County Fair Association, and this puts the show back where we originally wanted to have it — in the southern area of our region.”
Looking ahead, the association’s major regional RV show, the 2020 Jacksonville RV MegaShow, will take place Feb. 6-9, at the Jacksonville Equestrian Center.
