Summer staycationing contiues to rise, returning confidence to the UK holiday sector
CaravanTimes previously reported on a rise in staycationing and its benefits, and a more recent study also shows that UK tourism is highly imperative to the number of jobs and companies that have continued to grow in spite of the economic crisis which soon looks set to be a distant memory.
One such holiday venue feeling the positive effects of the upshift in holidaying at home is Forest Park in Cromer, Norfolk, with the park recently announcing a 41 per cent rise in bookings this season owing to the increasing staycation trend.
Forest Park owner, Deborah Gurney, recently invested £130,000 into her business after witnessing a surge in holiday bookings. The time to invest is now, Debroah feels, with the business already having advanced ahead of its 2013 turnover.
“Speaking to other hoteliers and tourism bodies, I think confidence has returned to our sector and we have certainly noticed a rise in people booking shorter breaks but returning several times a year,” Deborah says.
Family-run, the park first opened the park in 1967 set within 100 acres of woodland. Today, it hosts 250 touring caravans, motorhomes and campers, in addition to two cottages, a campsite and 500 wooden lodges and holiday homes, perfect for a British holiday.
The £130,000 investment will go to improving the park’s facilities and will include refurbishing the swimming pool changing rooms, lighting and the creation of a new, more modern website.
The park, which has won the Bellamy Gold Award for Conservation every year since 2001 and employs 45 people has many plans on the horizon.
A study by Sheffield Hallam University also confirmed that families holidaying closer to home are benefitting the eastern region of the UK, and that the number of jobs heavily supported by tourism throughout places such as Cromer in Norfolk has continued to rise over the last several years.
