Despite the limping economy and lower tourism rates overall, recreational-vehicle parks in Arizona are reporting higher occupancies this winter.

Overall, RV parks across the Sun Belt - the Southeast and Southwest states - are enjoying increases up to 30 percent, says a report by the National Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds.

In Tucson, the news is good, but mixed. Some park owners, like George O'Leary, who owns the three Rincon RV Resorts in Tucson, see a surge in business.

"We're up 30 percent over last year, although last year was poor. We're up about 4 percent compared to 2006," O'Leary says.

He cites a few factors for this increase, including a new advertising push: "We're spending money like we never spent before, but that's how you move through this."

Joe Boyd, general manager at Voyager RV Park Resort, on Wilmot Road just south of I-10, says business has been relatively flat year-to-year but is finally up slightly.

While many visitors cut short their stays last year, this year many retirees have decided to extend their vacations, Boyd says. Additionally, a new "early-bird" special is helping push visitors to make reservations for next year.

"The people here can be sensitive to the economy, but we're seeing more business. It's early in the year," Boyd says.

The uptick in business is driven by a variety of factors. Lower fuel prices and the overall value of camping - which has always done well against other kinds of recreation - have helped, says Linda Profaizer, president of the National Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds.

"People are a little more comfortable with the economy now and are leaving the states hit hard by this winter for warmer weather," she says. "Plus, people tend to go back to a place because they've made friends."

For some visitors, it's this sense of community that keeps bringing them back to Tucson, despite the economy.

"Three-hundred-eighty-seven inches (of snow) for 40 years - that's what brought us here," says David Gilbert, 74, a retired surgeon from Eagle Harbor, Mich., who with his wife, Barb, is spending time at the Voyager RV Park Resort. "But we keep coming back for them," he says, nodding to the other couples gathered around a picnic table set between two RVs.

His friend, Fred Bieti, 69, from Iron Mountain, Mich., agrees, saying, "The economy has tightened the purse strings, but there's a desire to come out here, to enjoy ourselves, so we do."

BY THE NUMBERS

Pima County has had a 50-cents-per-day surcharge on RV space rentals since 1997. Detailed collection figures are not available for this year.

However, the drop last year in tourism revenues, in general, and particularly in RV visits, prompted the county to slash the amount it expects to get from the RV surcharge - after five years of slow but steady growth.

In 2008-09, the county anticipated $230,000. When actual receipts came in far short of that, last June it lowered its budget projection for this year to $104,000, although County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry said preliminary reports are that business has been better than expected.

Each year county budget planners project how much the county will get from the RV surcharge, based on the past year's performance. Here are their projections for the past five years:

2005-06 $190,000

2006-07 $205,000

2007-08 $225,000

2008-09 $230,000

2009-10 $104,000

Paul Ingram is a University of Arizona journalism student who is an apprentice at the Star. Contact him at starapprentice@azstarnet.com