By William Coleman
Is being British becoming popular once again? All the best actors are British, all the best shows are British and all the best caravan sites are British. Is Britain’s heavy TV and film presence bringing the masses to our lands for holiday?
Over the past few years Britain has been in the spotlight on TV due to, not Brexit, being featured in major TV shows and films. There has also been a large amount of TV shows that have focused on the caravan and motorhome world across all the major UK channels.
Recently there have been several high profile shows on British TV that have been about the caravan and motorhome world. Heck , even the Caravan and Motorhome Club even sponsored and took part in a couple of shows to help spread awareness of the lifestyle.
The first show that popped into mind, which aired shortly after me joining the CaravanTimes team, was the 5 Celebrities Go Motorhoming, camping and then finally caravanning. These kinds of shows are a great way to promote the idea of getting in a caravan or motorhome.
One of the main reasons that these shows work is they show the celebrities on a sort of “fish out of water” scenario with the added drama of them being first time users. If they can do it any one can I guess.
The shows really does plunge the actors in at the deep end and gets you reminiscing about your first few attempts of getting out in the van. The actors do get some help and training from CAMC’s finest teachers before they set off so they could operate safely but it is very much them taking on the world for a week. On the flip side of things it shows just how much fun and freedom you can have by owning your own leisure vehicle.
Another great show, which I was glued to, was the touring cooking show with Gino Di’Acampo, Fred Sirieix and Gordon Ramsey which went by the creative name; Gordon, Gino and Fred’s Road Trip.
The three chefs used a Pilote Galaxy G740, which eventually ended up stuck on a grass verge going up a steep hill when they were on their way to make mozzarella, to tour their home countries in search of native culinary delights. What a waste of a very expensive motorhome.
I enjoyed it because it brought back memories of driving across France and Italy in a motorhome and doing my best to east as locally as possible. Which you can do with ease with an on board kitchen.
These kinds of shows capture the adventures that can be had and from a very different perspective of people who do not usually use leisure vehicles for their holiday. Can you imagine Gordon Ramsay emptying a toilet cassette!
With so many channels willing to spend quite a lot of money to get actors into caravans and motorhomes is must be a reflection of how well the caravan industry is doing.
The boost in tourism off the back of these shows cannot be measured but they would not be continually produced if they were not doing wonders for ratings and sales.
Now if you look at how Britain is being portrayed on TV and streaming sites at the moment we are slowly becoming one of the most featured countries in TV and film. Experts have said that shows like Peaky Blinder, The Queen and Downton Abbey are having a huge impact on overseas visitors who are flocking to the UK off the back of these shows.
So add the internal shows about the caravan world and then the global shows it seems as though our tourism is in a good place despite some current large scale uncertainties.
