Maine Has Significant Decrease in Camping Reservations as Popularity Explodes in Rest of US

The pandemic has fueled the popularity of camping, but Maine is going backward.

Camping was trending upward before the pandemic, and Covid really kicked people's desire to get away into high gear. In fact, according to a report by Outdoorsy, over 10 million households camped for the first time in 2020. That was one-fifth of all camping households. Data from Recreation.gov—a trip planning and reservation portal for U.S. public lands—showed that camping reservations were close to 3.3 million in 2020, up by about one-third from 2019 and by more than two-thirds from five years before that.

Except for Maine, where you would think we would be leading the nation in camping!

According to the new report from Outdoorsy, to find the states where camping has grown in popularity the most over the past five years, they analyzed data from Recreation.gov. Then states were ranked according to each location’s percentage change in camping reservations from 2015 to 2020. Researchers also calculated the total increase in camping reservations from 2015 to 2020, total camping reservations in 2020, and the public land (national park, national forest, lake, etc.) with the most camping reservations in 2020.

Here's where it makes you scratch your head. The analysis found that from 2015 to 2020, Recreation.gov reported a 46.5% decline in camping reservations made in Maine.

• Percentage change in camping reservations (2015–2020): -46.5%
• Total increase in camping reservations (2015–2020): -9,363
• Total camping reservations (2020): 10,757
• Most popular destination: Acadia National Park

To put this in perspective, here are the stats for the entire country:

• Percentage change in camping reservations (2015–2020): 68.1%
• Total increase in camping reservations (2015–2020): 1,323,031
• Total camping reservations (2020): 3,267,142
• Most popular destination: Yosemite National Park

California had the most reservations at 234,881 and Indiana saw the biggest increase in reservations jumping a whopping 481.3%! Maine had the biggest drop at 46.5%.

Hmm. Is it because they aren't just camping here, they are MOVING here? I'm not sure if this is good news or bad news - but it is interesting news.