Best Parks in America and RVC Outdoor Destinations Form Partnership

3.17.11

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Best Parks in America and RVC Outdoor Destinations Form Partnership

MCLEAN, Va. - Best Parks in America has announced a partnership with RVC Outdoor Destinations, a Memphis, Tennessee based company that has developed a unique brand of upscale RV and cottage resort properties in the Southeastern United States. Four of RVC’s properties will carry the Best Parks in America brand designation and will be part of a national family of superior resorts that now numbers 76 and growing.

“We are excited about this new partnership with RVC,” said David Gorin, President of Best Parks of America. “RVC’s outdoor destinations embody the objectives of Best Parks by offering RVers and cottage vacation guests a high quality, unique vacation experience in superb surroundings. The company is staking out a new and different business model, featuring appealing natural environments, hotel-like services and upscale amenities, and all are located within minutes of great recreational activities and attractions that are unique to each location and the community,” said Gorin.

Best Parks in America is a leading national brand for highly-rated RV parks and campgrounds. Through the partnership, the company will provide RVC with a wide range of marketing, branding, training, research, and business intelligence and information.

The four RVC Outdoor Destinations are Pine Mountain, just outside of the world famous Callaway Gardens near Atlanta, Georgia; Catherine’s Landing, which is opening April 1st and is located in Hot Springs, Arkansas; Carrabelle Beach, located directly on the Gulf of Mexico in Carrabelle, Florida; and the latest to open, Live Oak Landing, which is located on the waters of the Choctawhatchee Bay near Destin, Florida.

“We are proud to be affiliated with Best Parks in America, as we share the same values and goals of delivering a great experience to our guests. Partnerships such as this, with an established and admirable brand, allow our company to grow and become better known,” said Yale Spina, Vice President of RVC Outdoor Destinations. “We have motivated teams in place and great properties that include excellent amenities that will now be recognized with Best Parks in America. I can’t wait to get the word out,” Spina added.

RVC Outdoor Destinations has been actively seeking to develop or acquire RV properties in highly desirable vacation areas. The company anticipates that the new “Outdoor Destination” concept will have great appeal across a wide range of RVers, as well as the offering of the increasingly popular RVC Resort Cottages, yurts, and cabins to not exclude those who may not own an RV.

“I’m sure RVers, campers and others who’ve visited Best Parks in America resorts across the U.S. will applaud the partnership with RVC Outdoor Destinations,” said Gorin. “For Best Parks, the partnership marks a new opportunity for us to work with multiple park companies in providing a national brand presence that identifies superior resorts to vacationers,” he added.

For more information on Best Parks of America, visit http://www.bestparksinamerica.com/.

For more information on RVC Outdoor Destinations, visit http://www.rvcoutdoors.com/. Also visit them on Facebook and Twitter: @RVCoutdoors.

 

Come to American RV in Olive Branch, MS and purchase your new Athens Resort Home and place it on your own lot at your favorite RVC Outdoor Destination!

 

AMERICAN RV

Olive Branch, MS

www.AmericanRV.biz

Toll Free:  888.337.6870

Nudist Camp in Canada Goes Clothed After 40 Years

By ROSS ROMANIUK, QMI Agency

Former president Bob Mogliore looks out over the pool at Crocus Grove Nudist community. (QMI Agency file photo)

WINNIPEG - No more will everyone just hang out at a Manitoba nudist campground, as the park's owners try to better cover their costs by limiting their exposure to hefty water improvement bills.

After more than four decades of a "clothing-optional" attitude, what's been known as Crocus Grove Campground is changing its name this month to keep in step with a shift away from nudity among its users.

The newly named Sandhill Pines RV Park and Campground, about 40 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, is requiring campers to begin wearing clothes when out and about at the facility, so that its owners can try to attract more customers and maintain their site's viability.

"It's too bad that it's had to go this route. That's just the way it's happened," Susan Ryynanen, who owns the park with husband Ray, said Thursday.

"We've had declining numbers in terms of clothing-optional campers, and we have to do something differently."  

The 60-campsite park is asking users and guests to wear clothes for the first time since it opened in 1969. The owners say it's because of new federal and provincial regulations requiring that facilities like private campgrounds chlorinate their tap water and undertake related engineering studies. 

It's going to be between $15,000 and $50,000, depending on the size of the campground, to comply," explained Susan. The Rynnanens had continued to allow nudity since purchasing the park in the Rural Municipality of Brokenhead more than three years ago.

Because their revenue potential is "extremely limited" by appealing to a naturist niche market, Ryynanen said, it's necessary to woo a wider array of campers.

"We just have to cope with the additional costs, and maintain the same size of campground," she added at the park on Provincial Road 317, where the couple live.

"So we need to go public and expand our horizons."

To distance the park from the nudity image, she said, they're using advertising and signage under the Sandhill Pines name and "don't have any affiliation with Crocus Grove at all any more."

The end of Crocus Grove's nudity, however, doesn't mean campers can't go naked anywhere in that region east of Lake Winnipeg. Ryynanen pointed out that the Patricia Beach area, a short drive north, continues to maintain a "clothing-optional" section along the lake.

The shift doesn't appear to be steering users away.

After talking to campers who have regularly used the park, Ryynanen said about 98% have indicated they'll hang around -- even if not hanging out.

"They understand. They're here because they love camping," she said.

"Everybody is sad and disappointed that we can't maintain the clothing-optional status, but the reality is that the big draw here is camping and being out in nature. It's a bit of a change, but not a complete change."

Posted in CNEWS Across Canada

Want News? Catch Your RV, Parks and Camping Buzz Here!: Redneck Camping for Dummies

Want News? Catch Your RV, Parks and Camping Buzz Here!: Redneck Camping for Dummies

Hilarious Redneck for camping Video!

High-end RV park to open on Florida's East Coast

Margate to be home to South Florida’s first luxury RV park

Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at lhuriash@SunSentinel.com
or 954-572-2008.

Suzie Cote, left, and Jean-Francois Leblanc are shown on one of the finished pads at the Aztec RV Resort in Margate. This former  mobile home park will become an RV park for millionaires, the  first truly high-end RV park on Florida's east coast. Most of the early buyers  are French Canadians (Amy Beth Bennett, Sun Sentinel / March 14, 2010)

A property once occupied by the working poor soon could become home to the mega-wealthy on wheels. 

In September, Margate is expected to become the first city on Florida's East Coast with an upscale RV park. Until it closed in 2007, Aztec Estates mobile home community filled the 104-acre site on the east side of State Road 7 and south of Southgate Boulevard. 

On Tuesday afternoon, the Broward County Commission unanimously approved a needed rezoning. If state and city officials also sign off on the deal as expected, developers hope to fill the new Aztec RV Resort with rich snowbirds enjoying a nine-hole golf course, a forested backdrop, and a scenic canal. They will live aboard luxurious motorcoaches that cost more than $200,000, on lots starting at $108,000. About a quarter of the park's RVs are expected to cost more than $1 million.

"These are the ones rock stars use when they tour," Margate Vice Mayor Frank Talerico said. 

"It's not a camping park — it's pretty high-end. People with a lot of discretionary income have these things."

About 20 percent of the park's 646 lots have been sold — all to buyers, mainly Canadians, who paid with cash, said sales manager Jean-Francois Leblanc.

After the Aztec mobile home park closed, the property was rezoned to accommodate a development with 707 single-family homes, townhouses and condos. After the housing market bust, that plan never materialized.

In March 2009 a group of nine Canadian investors bought the land for $17 million and dropped another $23 million on improvements including new sewers and water lines, more than 27,000 trees and other landscaping.

They used Pelican Lake Motorcoach Resort in Naples as a model. Salesmen tell clients the Margate resort will be even nicer, with tiki huts for picnics, a playground and shuffleboard court, and optional upgrades such as fountains, outdoor kitchens, fire pits and roll-up screens for outdoor movies.

Sales brochures are printed in both French and English for the mostly French Canadian clientele they are trying to reach and both American and Canadian flags fly at the State Road 7 entrance to the RV park.

Another attraction directed at Canadians will be a court for petanque — a sport resembling lawn bowling and bocce that's very popular in France.

Frank Cannatelli, a Quebec businessman, bought five lots — one for him and his wife to use in winter, the others to either rent for income, or flip once the park is sold out. 

"There's nothing else like it," he said. "The airport is close, the casino is close, the beach is close. There's lots of things to do."

Margate Mayor Joe Varsallone said he was impressed with the plans.

"The type of people that will be moving in are people who are very, very financially sound, no question about it," he said. "There will be [property] tax revenue for the city of Margate and also revenue for stimulating the economy. These people are going to have to patronize the different businesses in Margate."

Though final approvals are still pending, construction is well under way at the RV park. Decorative lanterns mark each lot and the security fence is nearly complete.

Chester Watson, a retired owner of used car lots from Montreal, spent Monday touring the park and said he is thinking about buying a lot to use in winter. "It's going to be like five stars," he said.

Source:  Sun Sentinel News

 http://www.americanrv.biz/

American RV Center 

Toll-Free:  888-337-6870

Sales, Parts & Service

Route 66 RV Network

Olive Branch, MS