Leisure Systems

Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park Camp-Resorts is a franchised brand of family camping and glamping destinations. Every location is individually owned and operated and sets its own rates and policies; the franchise corporate office handles franchising, brand programmes and the Club Yogi Rewards loyalty scheme, and states plainly that it cannot take reservations or answer questions about camping rates.

What the brand supplies a franchisee is a packaged family-entertainment product: the licensed Yogi Bear, Boo Boo and Cindy Bear characters with scheduled character events and bios, a daily activity programme covering foam parties, dance parties, wagon rides, tie-dye, silent discos, movie nights and live entertainment, theme weekends, water and outdoor attraction positioning, and accommodation formats spanning cabins, RV sites, tent sites and extended stays. Marketing support includes the consumer website and location finder, a free printed directory, area guides, an app, a gift card programme and the rewards scheme. Prospective franchisees are pointed to a separate franchise site for the opportunity itself.

The brand was founded in 1969, after its founder watched families towing trailers along a Wisconsin highway and began sketching a destination campground; a second and third location opened in Orlando and California in 1970, and the tenth by 1971. It now describes itself as the largest family camping and glamping brand in the country, with more than 75 locations across the United States and Canada and over 55 years of operation. In 2022, after more than 75 grand openings, the franchising company was purchased by Sun Communities.

The consumer site carries no franchise fee, royalty or development-cost information, and the corporate office does not handle park-level pricing. Owners weighing a conversion should go to the franchise site for the disclosure document, territory terms and the capital required for water attractions and activity staffing before modelling the deal.