As the UK looks to come carefully out of lockdown, camping and caravanning is set to be the holiday of choice for the summer of 2020 with many seeking to replace their foreign holiday with a UK staycation this year. Campers and campsite owners are eagerly looking forward to the day when sites can reopen with social distancing and hygiene measures in operation, and bookings with the Camping and Caravan Club have seen a massive upturn as holidaymakers seek to secure their pitch on-site, as places on some sites may be more limited than normal with additional spacing between pitches.
Sabina Voysey, Director General of The Camping and Caravanning Club appeals to the Government for clarity and guidance, saying “Of course, we will only open when it’s safe to do so – the safety of our staff and campers has been our top priority from the start. We’ve been working with various industry bodies and have fed in our recommendations to government as to how we believe we can operate safely – we’re really hopeful the sector will get some clear operational guidance so campers can return with confidence.
Opening up a campsite network like ours is logistically complex, it takes time and we’ve been doing a lot of work operationally to make sure we’re ready. We’ve had to make the best plan that we can for this moment in time. What sites we’re going to open, if we can open facility blocks, when we can bring staff back, new ways of managing sites and processes to follow. We’re legally shut, and the earliest we could possibly open in England is from the 4th July but with other areas of the economy opening back up we really need a steer from the UK and devolved governments – getting confirmed opening dates and official guidance for each nation is becoming critical.”
To help members with their bookings, the club have made changes to normal procedure, advising members that they will move or fully refund bookings whilst their touring sites remain closed, have offered extended membership during the period that campsites are legally closed, ensured future bookings during closure remain completely flexible and extended the booking window to 18 months for members.
As the anticipated re-opening of caravanning sites draws closer the club say that they have experienced a 70% increase in sales and bookings for the past 3 weeks compared to the same period in 2019, with their biggest sales day of a decade in that period. July and August remain immensely popular months, whilst only 2% of their members surveyed saying that they would not consider a camping holiday this year for reasons relating to COVID-19
Ms. Voysey outlines the opening plan for Camping and Caravanning Club sites this summer:
“The team is working towards potentially reopening campsites in England from July 4 as part of the UK Government’s phase 3 plans to ease restrictions. We are also working towards the provisional opening dates of from July 15 for Scotland. Provisionally Northern Ireland campsites and caravan parks are now scheduled to reopen from June 26, before the proposed re-opening date for campsites in England, though we will continue to work towards the July 4 date. We are also closely monitoring developments in Wales and await notification of the proposed re-opening dates by the Welsh Parliament.
At the current time we plan to open the majority of Club Sites, including as many as possible with toilet block facilities. Opening with toilet and shower facilities will only happen if we’re allowed to do so by the relevant governments for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Some campsites however, will open without toilets and showers. In order to operate our sites in a responsible manner we will be increasing our cleaning regimes; where facility blocks are open there will be 2 deep cleans a day and 4 supplementary cleans – this places extra demand on our staff so we have had to look at campsites which are better suited to self-sufficient campers where facility blocks will not be open this season.
“Unfortunately it’s likely that 26 sites will remain closed for the rest of the season”
You can view a list of Camping and Caravanning Club Sites and whether they’re open, open with limited facilities or closed for the remainder of 2020 at the club website here.
Extra space between groups of campers is a theme for 2020
The club has also surveyed its members and used those results to plan future operations this summer
“We have surveyed our members on their hopes, expectations and what would make them feel comfortable on our campsites. While many things remain uncertain, our Operational teams have a draft plan for how we hope to open the Club Site network as soon as we’re legally able to. We have fed in our recommendations to government and will follow any guidelines set out.
- Contactless check in – this will be facilitated by Auto Balance Collect. The balance of any money due for your stay will be taken automatically from the account on the morning of arrival. This means we’ll ask for car registration details when a booking is made. When campers arrive on site, they can remain inside their vehicle and a member of our site staff will welcome them and show them to their allocated pitch.
- Sensible social distancing – our pitches have six-metre spacing and we’ll reduce the number of people on Club Sites with facility blocks so we can manage demand.
- There will be signs and floor markings as a common sense reminder to keep two metres from other people.
- Where facility blocks are open there will be 2 deep cleans and 4 supplementary cleans a day and guidance on how many people the block can accommodate at one time. Campers will also be able to pitch their own toilet tent on their allocated pitch.
- On campsites where facility blocks are open, we’d ask that if people are able to use their own facilities in their unit, they do so as much as possible – this will help us manage demand and queuing.
- We’re only allowing individual bookings and with well-managed sites we can prevent large groups assembling.
- Campers will not be able to have any day visitors to their pitches – this will help us limit the number of people on sites.
- Whilst our washing up areas will remain open, communal areas such as receptions, shops, laundries and play areas will remain closed. Campers need to ensure they bring all their essentials with them – we will also be unable to sell gas.
- Service points will be open – please follow hand washing guidance; whilst we will have this available on sites, we’d ask campers to also bring with them their own supplies of soap and hand sanitiser.
- We will not be opening our Ready Camp Safari Tents, Pods or Self-Catering units this season.”
The main webpage for Coronavirus information on the Camping & Caravanning Club website is here: https://www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk/helpandadvice/travelplanning/coronavirus/
