Lakes holiday firm bucks credit crunch

One of the Lake District’s biggest holiday parks companies says tourism businesses can survive the 2008 credit crunch because people are refusing to cut back on their breaks.

South Lakeland Parks – which runs four sites in Cumbria and attracts in the region of 68,000 holidaymakers to the county every year – reported this week that advance bookings are “significantly up” on previous years and have bucked the financial slow down.

The company says they are seeing that people now regard holidays as an essential household spend rather than a frivolous luxury item and that unlike financial crises of the past, tourism businesses do not have to go into a slump.

The company runs three five-star parks in the Lake District and believes the other arm of its business – selling exclusive timber holiday lodges and static caravans in the Lakes – may also overcome a nervous property market.

Graham Hodgson, Chief Executive, said: “Holiday bookings to our parks are strong and there is no sign they have been affected by the doom and gloom. Either people are choosing to have more breaks in the UK and cutting back on the ones abroad or are saying that when you work hard and are cutting back - the family holiday is not something you are prepared to sacrifice.

He added: “Right now people are reluctant to put money into bricks and mortar and might be lucky to get a mortgage even if they tried. Our holiday homes are not as expensive and you can let them out when you are not using them, people are recognising the opportunity to get involved in this growing sector and want to buy a holiday home to sublet to earn additional income. Because the holiday market is buoyant this represents a rare opportunity to earn extra money during a financial slowdown.”

As a sign of its confidence in the holiday homes market, the company is pressing ahead with its 4 new developments across is Lake District parks. The next new holiday lodge development at its five-star park Fallbarrow on the shores of Bowness will be launched at an open weekend over Bank Holiday 3rd-5th May.

The luxury lodges made by Cumbrian company Reiver Lodges based in Carlisle, start from a cool £195,000 and a special open weekend is being held over May 3rd and 5th to show potential buyers around.

As a sweetener to get customers interested, it has linked up with Bowness-based Rayrigg Motors to offer a stylish 08-reg Fiat 500 car worth £7,900 to every person who buys one of the seven lodges before the end of June.

South Lakeland Parks, whose head office is at Natland near Kendal, runs the White Cross Bay Park at Windermere, Fallbarrow Park at Bowness-on-Windermere and Limefitt in the Troutbeck Valley. It is one of Cumbria’s biggest holiday companies and one of the largest holiday park operators in the county.