OHI Leaders Represent Campgrounds at DC Forum – RVBusiness – Breaking RV Industry News
WASHINGTON, DC — Members of OHI (formerly National ARVC) leadership on Tuesday participated in the National Outdoor Recreation Executive Forum in Washington DC, an event bringing together leaders from across the industry’s many segments to identify challenges and opportunities facing the $1.1 trillion outdoor recreation economy and drive collective goals and strategies forward.
The Executive Forum, hosted by the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable (ORR) — a collective of organizations advocating on behalf of all outdoor-focused industries — of which OHI is a member, was created with the goal in mind of shaping efforts as a collective sector.
More than 150 industry executives, members of Congress, federal agency leaders, State Offices of Outdoor Recreation and governors were in attendance. Representing OHI at the Summit were Paul Bambei, president and CEO, who also sits on the ORR Board of Directors, and David Basler, Chief Strategy Officer.
“As long-time members of the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable, it was important for OHI to have a strong presence at this event in Washington, and for us to represent the Outdoor Hospitality Industry sector to so many powerful members of Congress,” Bambei said.
Throughout the course of the day, the OHI team had in-depth conversations on the impact of the Outdoor Hospitality Industry with members of Congress, including Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO); Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV); Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT); and Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA); as well as Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (Arkansas) and Gov. Doug Burgum (North Dakota).
“This [Summit] is part of ORR’s ongoing efforts to convene industry leaders and government officials and provide thought leadership and cross-sector collaboration between CEOs, agency leaders, and policy makers,” ORR Executive Director Jessica Turner said.
It was important to OHI leaders to convey the fact that private RV parks and campgrounds across the country make up almost $35 billion of the Outdoor Recreation economy.
OHI leaders used the opportunity to not only represent this significant impact privately-owned RV parks and campgrounds have on the overall Outdoor Recreation economy, but also as a pre-cursor to two days of meetings on Capitol Hill with other key members of Congress. These face-to-face meetings OHI has scheduled this week will focus primarily on legislation that would lower taxes and fees levied on small businesses.
OHI, as the member of ORR specifically representing Outdoor Hospitality Industry businesses, is well-positioned to strategically tackle these national topics important to our industry. The OHI public affairs team is constantly on alert watching and acting on legislation impacting RV parks and campgrounds of all sizes across the country, and ORR involvement is a vital part of that process.
OHI is going into more than 30 meetings on the Hill this week confident and prepared to advocate for Outdoor Hospitality businesses.
ABOUT OHI
OHI (formerly National ARVC), the leader in the Outdoor Hospitality Industry, is the only national association dedicated to representing the interests and needs of private RV parks and campgrounds across North America. We are deeply committed to providing our more than 3,000 members exclusive access to continuing education, networking, business and marketing tools, member-only benefits and discounts, and advocacy at the local, state, and national levels.
