By William Coleman
Over the past 2 years the UK tourism industry has seen a real boom. With people from all around the world choosing the UK for their holidays, especially when it comes to caravan holidays and park holidays. All across the board sites are improving their facilities and holiday opportunities, which has not gone unnoticed by the Caravan and Motorhome Club.
Senior executives from CAMC traveled to the Lake District to take a behind the scenes look at a site that is meeting the demand in staycation opportunities.
Skelwith Fold in Ambleside was the venue for the visit following a study tour earlier in summer to the Club’s Coniston Park Coppice by members of BH&HPA’s Cumbria branch.
Director General of The Caravan and Motorhome Club was there for the delegation, the aim of which was to see how one of the Club’s commercial counterpart have been adapting to the ever evolving UK holiday market.
Henry Wild, Skelwith Ford’s Director, led the Nick Lomas on a tour of the 130 acre grounds. Mr. Wild said there is plenty of evidence that this year has shown a massive surge in demand for UK based holidays.
A trend, he feels, is bringing a lot more families around to the notion of British park based holidays, or ‘staycations’. Another new holiday type which is attracting the masses to parks is ‘glamping’, glamorous camping to you and I. Due to the wide publicity across TV shows and media the glamping craze has done wonders for parks across the UK.
This year Henry added safari tents to the sites existing glamping options at Skelwith Fold where 450 plus pitches also provide holiday home ownership and touring facilities.
The park’s touring guests, according to Henry, include a number of Caravan and Motorhome Club members and that the “cross pollination” of visitors are a benefit to both parks and customers alike.
Like the Club, said Henry, parks such as his recognised the importance of keeping quality standards on an ever-rising trajectory to match customer expectations.
Nick Lomas, Caravan and Motorhome Club director general, said: “It’s so important that the UK touring industry works together to improve the quality, standards and experiences which our places provide, so we can encourage even more people to enjoy the outdoors!
“The growing number of family groups sharing time together is common among both Skelwith Fold customers and Caravan and Motorhome Club members,” added Nick.
Last year, Skelwith Fold – which has been owned by the Wild family for over 20 years – was the winner of the Holiday Park of the Year title from Cumbria Tourism.
With so many different holidays types now available in the UK, along with younger people buying into the caravan world, it seems that our holiday economy will stay strong despite a slightly rocky looking future.
