SIC 7032
SPORTING AND RECREATIONAL CAMPS



This industry consists of establishments primarily engaged in operating sporting and recreational camps, such as boys' and girls' camps, and fishing and hunting camps. Establishments primarily engaged in operating sports instructional camps, such as baseball, basketball, football, or karate camps, and those operating day camps are classified in SIC 7999: Amusement and Recreation Services, Not Elsewhere Classified.

NAICS Code(s)

721214 (Recreational and Vacation Camps)

Industry Snapshot

In 1999, nearly 9 million people attended one of the nation's 8,500 camps, according to the American Camping Association (ACA). About 5,500 of those camps were resident camps, 2,200 were day camps, and the remaining 750 offered both day and overnight programs. Although the majority of camps were of the conventional summer camp variety, specialty camps that operated year-round and focused on one of a diverse range of subjects (such as accounting or space travel) were appearing in growing numbers. Camps catering to adult participants were on the rise as well and ranged from dude ranches to nudist camps. The camp industry employed 500,000 primarily full-time seasonal workers, usually college students, teachers, and health care professionals. The cost of attendance varied greatly from one facility to the next. Day camps typically cost between $10 and $50 per day, while the daily rate for resident camps ranged from $15 to $120.

Organization and Structure

About 75 percent of the 8,500 camps in the United States are operated by nonprofit groups or agencies. These include religious institutions, scouting organizations, and such well-known groups as Camp Fire, Inc., YMCA, and Boys and Girls Clubs of America. The remaining 2,125 camps are operated privately by families or individuals. In the United States there aren't any companies that operate large chains of commercial camps.

Establishment Size and Distribution. Nearly 40 percent of the establishments in the sporting and recreational camp industry are tax-exempt, a figure that is considerably higher than the 9.6 percent across all service industries. The tax-exempt segment of the industry accounts for only about 35 percent of the revenue generated by the industry, while employing 41 percent of its workers. Whether tax-exempt or not, camps are generally small operations in comparison to the rest of the service sector. Nonprofit camps employ, on average, only six people per establishment compared to 39 per establishment in other nonprofit operations in the service sector.

Geographically, camps are usually found where one finds the two necessary ingredients — people and space. New York and California, which have plenty of both, have the most sporting and recreational camps, with well over 200 ACA-accredited establishments each. States in the northern part of the Midwest, particularly Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, are also strongly represented in this industry, as are Pennsylvania and Texas.

Accreditation. A voluntary accreditation program has been administered by the American Camping Association (ACA) since the late 1940s. By the end of the twentieth century, roughly 2,200 U.S. camps were accredited by the ACA. Accreditation of a camp is established through an evaluation process based on up to 300 national standards. Trained volunteers visit the camp and, using a set of established guidelines, grade the facility in a variety of areas, including site and facility, administration, transportation, personnel, programs, health care, and activities. Site and facility criteria cover such basics as sanitary arrangements and food service. Standards for administration include safety regulations and emergency procedures. Vehicle safety and maintenance are examined for compliance with transportation standards. Personnel standards apply to the training, qualifications, and supervision of staff members. Qualifications of activity leaders are among the topics covered by program standards. Health care standards include the availability of first aid care and emergency transportation.

The list of standards used in the ACA's accreditation program has evolved over the course of several decades, beginning as the "Suggested Tentative Standards" adopted in 1935. The first set of official camp standards was adopted at the ACA's National Convention in 1948, after several years of study and debate and with financial support from the Chrysler and Kellogg foundations. In the 1950s, the standards for camp personnel and programs were adopted, as well as the methods by which conformity to these standards could be ascertained. Further research and development of the standards took place in the 1960s, including the formation of a Standards Rewrite Committee. In the 1970s and 1980s, standards were adopted that incorporated the needs of campers with disabilities and special medical conditions, such as diabetes. In 1990, a new set of standards was adopted that emphasized health and safety issues over the business-related issues that had been emphasized in the past.

Background and Development

The roots of the camping movement are often traced to the second half of the nineteenth century. In the summer of 1861, Frederick William Gunn, a Connecticut schoolmaster, took his class of 40 boys for a two-week campout to Long Island Sound, where they simulated the lifestyle of Civil War soldiers. The outing was so successful that it became an annual event known as Gunnery Camp. The next notable camp experiment was begun in 1881 by Ernest Balch, an undergraduate at Dartmouth. Seeking a summer alternative for children of wealthy families, Balch founded Camp Chocorua in New Hampshire. At Chocorua, boys from 12 to 16 years of age received a taste of wilderness, which Balch theorized was a healthier way to spend the summer than accompanying their parents to the swanky resorts of the day. In the following years, new camps were founded on the Chocorua model.

Fresh Air and Other Programs. Late in the nineteenth century the Fresh Air movement arose out of concern for the needs of poor children in urban areas. Camps were established near cities where growing immigrant populations were living in overcrowded conditions, which were perceived as unhealthy and conducive to delinquency. Some camps that were founded in the early days of the Fresh Air movement are still in existence, including Camp Algonquin, founded by Chicago's United Charities in 1907, and Incarnation Camp, Inc., an Episcopal center that began as early as 1886. Around 1875, Country Week programs were established in Philadelphia and Boston. The Philadelphia program was started by Eliza Turner, who invited 12 girls to spend two weeks at her farm; by 1910, 3,000 children were participating. In New Jersey the publisher of Life Magazine founded what became known as Trail Blazer Camps in 1887; by 1918, 40,000 children had participated in two-week sessions at the camp.

Private girls' camps began to appear in greater numbers around 1902. That year, three such camps opened: Kehonka in New Hampshire; Pinelands of Centre Harbor, Maine; and Wyonegonic Camps in Bridgton, Maine. Another camp, Camp Arey, which was founded years earlier as a natural science camp for boys, also became a girls' camp. By 1915, 100 private girls' camps were in operation. These camps offered girls from sheltered backgrounds a chance to wear comfortable clothing and engage in activities that were more rugged than those in which they were usually allowed to participate.

YMCA and YWCA. The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) was first formed in Philadelphia as a sort of resource center for women employed in industrial occupations. The first YWCA camp, called Sea Rest, was set up in 1874 in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Its purpose was to enable overworked young women to take a low-cost vacation from their 60-hour-per-week jobs. It received an enormous amount of publicity from the start, including a dedication speech by President Ulysses S. Grant.

The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) appeared in the 1850s as a support program for teenaged boys and young men who lived on their own. The YMCA's camping program was founded by Sumner Dudley in 1885. That year, Dudley took seven YMCA boys camping at Pine Point on Orange Lake, only six miles from their home in Newburgh, New York. The program grew rapidly over the next few summers. The camp that Dudley founded was still operating 100 years later and now bears his name.

Camps operated by nonprofit organizations began to proliferate in the early part of the twentieth century. Among the groups that joined this trend were the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America, Camp Fire Girls, and a wide variety of religious, labor union, and other types of organizations. Like their predecessors, these camps were mainly concentrated in the northeastern portion of the nation.

Government Involvement. Historically, government agencies have not played an important role in the development of the camp industry, at least not in the sense of operating camps of their own. It is estimated that the percentage of camps operated by public agencies at any given time has never exceeded five percent. Government agencies have contributed to the growth of camps in other ways, however. During the 1930s, the National Park Service, which was established in 1916, developed a number of organized camping facilities for lease to camping groups that did not possess their own camping areas.

State parks have also been a source of camping facilities for a variety of groups since the early 1900s. New York, for example, established a camping department as early as 1917. By 1950, there were 296 organized camping facilities in state parks throughout the United States. City parks and recreation departments began setting up camp programs around the same time. Los Angeles, Detroit, and Kansas City had municipal camping programs by 1920.

Emergence of the American Camping Association. In 1910, the directors of several private boys' camps got together to form the Camp Directors Association of America (CDAA). The CDAA merged in 1924 with the National Association of Directors of Girls' Camps, which had formed in 1916. The combined group was called the Camp Directors Association (CDA). With an organization in place that could establish communication among camp administrations and articulate the goals of the industry, new areas were found on which to place emphasis. In particular, facilities for people with disabilities began to multiply in the 1930s and 1940s. Industry-wide publications such as Camping (the official CDA journal) and Camp News (a commercial venture) began to appear. In 1935 the CDA evolved into the American Camping Association (ACA), which remains the most widely recognized voice of the camp industry.

Current Conditions

According to the ACA, enrollment in the U.S. camping industry grew nine percent in 1998. Females accounted for 55 percent of the nation's total enrollees. This was the seventh consecutive year that enrollment increased by eight to ten percent.

An ACA survey conducted in the late 1990s discovered that parents and campers desired shorter camping sessions, a view that contributed to the popularity of the one-week camp over the two-week or one-month sessions. This desire was likely to be fueled further by the concept of year-round schooling. This emergent trend, which was opposed by the ACA, had implications for the camping industry nationwide and was the subject of study among educators and other interested parties. Dr. Peter Scales of the Search Institute, a Minneapolis-based institution that conducted research on youth development, was quoted by the ACA: "The biggest plus of camp is that camps help young people discover and explore their talents, interests, and values. Most schools don't satisfy all these needs. Kids who have had these kinds of (camp) experiences end up being healthier and have less problems." In July, 1998, the New York City Board of Education launched a pilot program to provide an alternative to 12-month schooling. Break-Aways: Partnership for Year-Round Learning combined a nine-month school session with up to 28 additional days in a camp environment in which campers were exposed to both traditional academic lessons and camp activities.

A number of popular activities had been added to many camping programs by the late 1990s. These new areas of interest included adventure activities, such as mountain biking, rock climbing, and boating; fine arts, including performing arts, photography, and jewelry making; and organized sports, such as in-line skating, gymnastics, soccer, volleyball, and golf.

At the same time, various special purpose camps had also arisen. Some of these were instructional sports camps, which are classified under SIC 7999: Amusement and Recreation Services, Not Elsewhere Classified. In addition to these, recent entries have included NASA's U.S. Space Camp, ornithology camps, adult band camps, Breakers Etiquette Camp for teenagers, a circus camp called Circus Smirkus, and a host of camps with environmental themes.

Despite the trends of increased enrollment and the inclusion of popular activities, some 2,500 camps have closed since the mid 1970s. A disproportionate number of these had been run by nonprofit agencies. One of the chief reasons for these closures was that camps located near urban areas, especially those on the water, had become extremely attractive to real estate developers. Moreover, the prohibitive cost of liability insurance had become a problem for small camps that lacked significant financial resources.

Workforce

Summer youth camps account for about 500,000 full-time jobs in the United States. However, most of these jobs are seasonal. The ACA reports that the typical salary for a camp counselor is between $1,000 and $3,000 for the camp season. Counselors with special skills, such as trained lifeguards, are often paid as much as $4,000 for the same period. Most camps also provide their employees with room and board, and health care and laundry services are often available. A large percentage of camp counselors are college students on summer break. In some programs, college credit can be earned for camp experience.

In addition to counselors, camps also employ clerical workers, administrators, cooks, drivers, and other specialists. The vast majority of these workers are not represented by unions. In general, salaries for camp workers are fairly low compared to those of their counterparts in other service industries. Private camps usually pay higher wages than camps operated by nonprofit agencies. One unique characteristic of the sporting and recreational camp work force is its international composition. Each year, about 75 nations are represented on the staffs of American camps, accounting for as many as 18,000 foreign counselors in the 1990s.

America and the World

Organized camping, particularly of the summer camp variety, is very much an American phenomenon. One possible reason for this is the relative abundance of open landscape close to large cities. The United Kingdom, however, experienced a dramatic upswing in the popularity of summer camps in the 1980s. Between 1983 and 1988, the number of children attending "multiactivity holidays for children" doubled to 75,000. Unlike in the United States, the industry in the United Kingdom is highly concentrated, with a handful of companies accounting for a large share of the market. PGL Travel Ltd., for example, was the United Kingdom's leading operator of youth summer camps by the late 1990s, hiring more than 2,000 workers annually.

Further Reading

"ACA Fact Sheet." American Camping Association Web Site, 28 November 1999. Available at http://www.acacamps.org/media/factshet.htm .

Darnay, Arsen J., ed. Service Industries USA, 3rd ed. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group, 1996.

"Dispelling the Myths about Summer Camp." American Camping Association Web Site, 28 November 1999. Available at http://www.acacamps.org/media/myths.htm .

Eels, Eleanor. "History of Organized Camping: The First 100 Years." American Camping Association Web Site, 28 November 1999. Available at http://www.acacamps.org/media/history.htm .

"More Than a Summer Job." American Camping Association Website, 28 November 1999. Available at http://www.acacamps.org/media/sumjob.htm .

"Summer Camps Professionals Speak out Against Year-Round Schooling." American Camping Association Web Site, 28 November 1999. Available at http://www.acacamps.org/media/yearscho.htm .



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