by Holly Tribe
A South Wales caravan park has brought in a whopping £3.1million into the local economy over the last five years.
According to the South Wales Argus, caravanners staying at the Tredegar House Country Park Caravan Club Site are responsible for injecting £3.1 million pounds into the region, spending their holiday cash at local shops, restaurants and businesses.
The Tregedar House warden Pip Crane runs the site with his wife Nadine. He told the South Wales Argus: “With around 200 visitors here at any one time, we are a big contributor to the local economy. We are rarely less than half full at any time, and that’s usually in the middle of the week. At weekends, we’re very often full.”
The Caravan Club site is conveniently located within a mile of the M4 and is within striking distance of both Newport and Cardiff. The sites’ eighty pitches are set in seven acres of land which boasts an exquisite ornamental lake, walled gardens and a 17thC orangery. Mr Crane added: “This area has it all. It really is the gateway to Wales and has access to all that the south east of Wales can offer.”
With Newport named as the host city for this years Ryder Cup golf tournament this autumn, Mr Crane explains that the site’s eighty pitches are already fully booked: “All eighty pitches are already filled for the event, some of them to people who work behind the scenes at the tournament.”
Wales has a history of being a popular destination amongst caravanners. The new director general of the Caravan Club, Nick Lomas, recently met with the Welsh Assembly tourism minister, Alun Ffred Jones, to draw attention to the economic benefits of having twenty Caravan Club sites across Wales.
Mr Lomas said: “”The Caravan Club’s research shows that each year their members bring around £22m into Wales and, when this is added to The club’s direct infrastructural investment of nearly £1m a year, the five-year tally for the economy of Wales bursts comfortably through the £100m mark”.
