COVID-19 concerns have cancelled the Elkhart RV Dealer Open House for the second year in a row.
According to the RV Industry Association, THOR Industries and Forest River, Inc. officials announced they were cancelling their open house activities in a joint release Wednesday.
“After reviewing all of the factors, we determined it was in everyone’s’ best interest and the safest, most responsible course of action to cancel the Expo this year,” Forest River CEO Pete Liegl said in the release. “The community and dealers always welcome this event, but with COVID rates increasing across the country, we do not want to put our dealers, employees, or the community at any additional risk.”
Officials also said the cancellation would help “alleviate disruption to production at a time when delivering new RVs is critical to the industry’s success.” The industryhas reported nine straight months of record RV shipments so far, and shipments are expected to reach an all-time high by the end of 2021.
The open house was originally scheduled for the week of Sept. 27, and normally attracts thousands of visitors from across the country to Elkhart.
Contact Gemma at gdicarlo@wvpe.org or follow her on Twitter at @gemma_dicarlo.
If you appreciate this kind of journalism on your local NPR station, please support it by donatinghere.
