For nudism to grow, nudists need to support nudist resorts and organizations

Well, it happened again for the 2nd time in about a month that I know of.

We gave a tour today to a couple from Washington. They are members of Lake Bronson nudist campground in Washington and have been members there for many years they said.

They were in Palm Springs for 4 nights. They booked last minute to get out of Seattle's rain. They stayed at the Hilton.

I asked them why they stayed at the Hilton especially since this time of the year we have our special of stay 1 night, the 2nd is half priced and we are much cheaper than the Hilton. Plus there are other nudist places in Palm Springs. By staying at the Hilton, they wasted almost $375 extra compared to if they had stayed at our resort for those 4 nights.

Their answer was, "the Internet said it was going to rain. We didn't want to be at your nudist resort in the rain." Naturally weather.com was 100% WRONG as usual and we had great sunny weather this weekend. Also if it rained, you can still use our jacuzzi in the rain. And at the Hilton they had to wear bathing suits at the pool which they complained to us about. Imagine nudist club members choosing to wear bathing suits at a Hilton on vacation instead of saving money and staying at a nudist resort that was only 3 miles away.

I said to the people "wouldn't you want to support nudist businesses in Palm Springs in this economy instead Hilton which doesn't support nudism?" They got defensive again saying, "but the Internet said it was going to rain."

Do you want to know one of the biggest reasons nudism is growing so slowly or not at all in the US and why many clubs have closed or gone swinger in recent years? American nudists do not support nudist resorts or organizations enough in our own country. And these are the places that generate all the positive PR about nudism to grow the industry.

Immigrants support neighborhood businesses of their fellow countrymen. Gays stay at gay hotels and use gay businesses when practical. Nudists however are very fickle.

Now nude vacationers who do not belong to the nudist clubs or organizations like AANR support our resort. Probably 95% of our guests do not belong to nudist clubs or the nudist organizations. We work on them trying to get them to join AANR, but it is a hard sell. Because of nude vacationers, we had the 2nd highest occupancy rate of ALL hotels in Palm Springs. If we had to rely on nudist club members, we would be out of business.

Nudists that already belong to clubs should know better and support American nudism. But, many of them do not support American nudist resorts enough. Especially since American nudist resorts are such a great value.

Further like at our resort, about 10% of the revenue we take in goes to improvements at our resort to benefit guests and we don't increase the rates. We have always done that to make every ones vacation experience nicer. Last year we had an 81% occupancy rate. It would have been nicer if it was 85% and guests would have benefited more.

Many nudist club members go to the Caribbean or Mexico to vacation at resorts that are not owned by nudists. They then go back to their clubs bragging how they spent $5000-$7500 for a week vacation. These nudist club members should be supporting the American nudist resorts instead and they would save themselves thousands of dollars at the same time. What they spend on the built in travel agent commissions alone for a week long stay at these places, would pay for 3-4 nights at an American nudist resort.

Caliente in Tampa which has swinger parties said nudists did NOT support them enough and swingers do. They have bills to pay, thus they cater to swingers. Nudists have no one to blame but themselves for Caliente's policy change

I do not know how to change this thought process of the experienced nudist club member. But, just remember, every time you book at a non nudist hotel or at a nude place not owned by nudists, you forfeit your right to say "why aren't there more nudist places to go to in the US," because you are part of the reason.

Let's make 2009 the year that American nudists decide to support nudist clubs, resorts, and organizations in the US. Only vacation at American nudist resorts this year. Join the AANR and/or TNS.

For information about vacationing at The Terra Cotta Inn, call us at 800-786-6938.

Visit our site at http://sunnyfun.com

We hope to see you in sunny Palm Springs!