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Wales Sees Surge in Caravan, Camping Bookings

Wales (United Kingdom) is witnessing a massive surge in camping and caravan reservations.

As per a report, one of the UK’s largest operators has announced a huge increase of 137% in bookings in the 12 months to March 2022 as holidaymakers rush to secure pitches.

The early booking trends suggest that tourists are keen not to be left out as they might have done last year when North Wales hurtled to the top of the UK staycation rankings. Some sites are already nearly full, while others try to expand capacity. Some sites are even forced to reject guests.

Across the country, Anglesey has seen the largest percentage increase in the Welsh camping and caravanning market, according to figures by outdoor holiday company Pitchup, about 6.4% of all campers in Wales are now opting for a stay on the island, an increase from 3.7% in the pre-pandemic 2019.

A prominent player in the Welsh camping and caravan market is Gwynedd which accounts for a fifth (20.6%) of all the arrivals in Wales.

Another huge player of the UK camping and caravanning trend is Conwy. Conwy now makes up 6.5% of the Welsh market, increasing from 5.5% three years ago.

Pitchup Founder Dan Yates said rising utility bills had replaced COVID-19 restrictions as the main reason people travel within the UK during the summer.

“Now that the cost of living is increasing, many families will opt for a more affordable holiday much closer to home. Camping and caravanning have become a popular option not only because of travel restrictions but also being a cheaper holiday option,” Yates said. 

In the twelve months leading up to March 2022, Pitchup witnessed 113,130 campsite reservations. This is an enormous increase over the 47,826 bookings made in the previous year. However, these figures were distorted due to the lockdowns in 2020.

Despite the relaxation of travel restrictions, which allows international travel to resume, the Camping and Caravanning Club statistics show that domestic holidays are in high demand.

Easter bookings for its 100 campsites are up by 33% on Easter 2019.

Yates said that camping and caravanning is also popular because of the health and wellness benefits and accessibility to nature. It’s also a much more sustainable choice of trip.

“The pandemic led to more staycation bookings, which saw people who had never been to a caravan or campsite before now realize what they had been missing. This will, of course, bring a lot of returning customers to the staycation industry as a whole in 2022,” Yates added.

According to the Great Britain Tourism Survey figures, these two kinds of vacationing comprise 34% of the country’s entire tourism sector. In contrast, camping and caravanning are less important to the tourism sectors in England (20%) and Scotland (21%).

Jim Jones, CEO of North Wales Tourism, said that the data highlighted the importance of the outdoors as a draw for visitors. “We have some fantastic campsites in the region, in wonderful locations,” he said.

“However, councils also need to be thinking more about parking for motorhomes and campervans. This is an area seeing huge growth. Owners spend well in local areas, and we need to ensure they are looked after when they come here.”

This story originally appeared on North Wales Live.

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Hi, you might find this article from Modern Campground interesting: Wales Sees Surge in Caravan, Camping Bookings! This is the link: https://moderncampground.com/europe/united-kingdom/wales-sees-surge-in-caravan-camping-bookings/