By William Coleman
Over the past few weeks I have been seeing a large amount of negativity toward the touring community, the holiday making kind that is. Some of it is warranted whereas other reports baffle me and it outright nonsensical. Some places around the UK, especially the South West, are extremely unhappy with the touring tourism the area brings and are taking steps to prevent touring holiday makers visiting certain areas.
One of the more interest reports I have read was the amount of “congestion” touring homes cause on motorways. I can safely say that out of all the traffic jams, road traffic or any other type of motorway obstruction has never been caused by a motorhome or caravan. It’s usually a lorry or a hatchback style vehicle.
So, it towing a caravan on the motorway an issue? My answer would be categorically no. Not only are there speed limits in place when towing there are also a whole wave of driving safety requirements we all follow when on a motorway. Yes, not every person who has ever towed a caravan is 100% safe and follows the rules but on a whole I’d say the majority of towing drivers are very safe.
In certain areas in the South West there are parking rules and regulations to stop leisure vehicles from stopping or parking up. I do understand that there are a certain amount of touring folk who are known for not following the rules, illegally pitching, leaving mess and driving crime levels up. I agree that there should be rules to stop this kind of behaviour but it seems these new laws are actually aimed at honest and decent holiday makers, which baffles me.
Yes, it is not on if you are using seafront parking as your pitch and staying overnight. But if you are simply visiting and using your motorhome as your mode of transport then that is totally fine in my book. Maybe time frame rules for certain hot spots may be more reasonable than just simply banning motorhomes and caravans from parking?
Having a scan around some online regional news sites it would appear that quite a few people actually want to stop certain types of tourist visiting areas by imposing these restrictions. As a child I spent a majority of my holidays in the South West, Exeter especially. The attractions the area has range from zoos to waterfall parks and everything in between, all of which need tourism to survive.
To stop caravan and motorhome holiday makers would cut out a huge amount of income for a lot of businesses which would have a devastating effect on the overall economy. There are only so many stick of rock and candy floss that the locals will buy before getting sick of it.
For a lot of coastal destinations their main, if not sole, income is the flow of tourists that flock to the seaside for a week or even just a day over a weekend. If you take that away from them for the sake of a little bit of congestion then we’d better prepare for our summer holidays to look a lot different and expensive.
Why would they become more expensive you ask? If private or family run companies cannot afford to operate who will come in next? Starbucks, McDonalds and other high street juggernauts that will strip an area of it’s identity and make things uniform and mass produced.
I want to circle background to this congestion issue that seems to be turning thousands of people on the touring community. I have driven thousands of miles all across the Planet towing caravans and driving motorhomes. During these trips I have never seen any major issue caused by a leisure vehicle and can safely say that the increase in slow moving traffic has absolutely nothing to do with touring vehicles. That is just nonsense.
Then there is the simple matter of that thing called Brexit. As soon as it was announced the GPB dropped and ever since the country has been on a bit of a knife edge of uncertainty as a hard Brexit could make European travel somewhat tricky and therefore off putting.
A much weaker pound combined with a harder border crossing could see a lot more people staying home for their holidays. This would mean more and more people traveling to Devon, Wales, The Lake District etc etc. Then what? Everyone just refuses to accept the business and we then turn into a hapless holiday spot? Or we accept whatever happens and use that outcome to make this country a must visit location for people both foreign and domestic.
One reporter from Devonlive.com has even said: “The one thing some tourists bring which I don’t understand are caravans. Why on earth would you want to own one of these things, let alone spend your hard-earned weeks off dragging it down to Devon or Cornwall?”. He clearly has no idea of the importance these holidaymakers are the area. A very narrow minded view indeed. I urge him to go on a touring holiday and get a first hand look at how un-interfering these holidays are to an area.
If people listened to what he has to say then the South West coastline could fall into a state of ruin like places such as Margate,I recently went to Margate and it is not what I remember as a teen, and more recently Blackpool which was once one of the UK’s most beloved seasides. A lot of our dead coastline towns are in such a state of ruin that we can ill afford for one of out best to turn that way. It would taint so many childhood memories.
