Brent N,
I'll tell you my reasoning behind lack of Asians while camping. This is purely based on my thought process and have no statistical base.
Facts - I'm from India. I do not like to camp. I like to hike and see the places/nature.
Some mentioned to me that they go camping to enjoy the natural environment and go away from day-to-day city/town atmosphere. Go away from things we take for granted and just enjoy the nature.
In my hometown, there's a thing call load shedding - where we don't have electricity in high demand months (summertime) from 7am to 3pm daily. We do not have AC. We get drinking water once a day (or 3 times a week during summer months) so we have to store it and be frugal about it.
Being away from daily comforts argument just doesn't make any sense from above examples for a lot of people. Going camping we are not going to achieve anything new.
Most of the Indian subcontinent does not have any snow and I feel cold if the temperature goes below 50 degrees (even though I'm here for a few years now, it's just one of those mind things). So camping and staying in a tent in freezing cold (potentially) is pure torture for me. Why go to all this trouble when I can sleep in my bed and enjoy the comfortable sleep. Lot of my acquaintances share similar thought process - right, wrong, indifferent. I can take critique on this attitude of mine and won't be offended.
I was on Mt Whitney trail doing day hiking last month. When I mentioned this to my friends and family in India, they were surprised and asked me why did I go through so much trouble.
Hope it sheds some light on thoughts.
Abhijit
