It’s official! The National Caravan Council (NCC) recently reported an increase in bookings to caravan parks, rising sales of new and pre-owned touring caravans and a healthy contribution to the UK economy from caravanning.

After a difficult end to 2008, manufacturers such as the Swift Group have seen unexpectedly buoyant sales of new caravans and dealers, including Tilshead Caravans, report that sales of used caravans have been running well ahead of expectation.

Campsites and caravan holiday home parks have seen a substantial increase in bookings and occupancy rates. There is increasing evidence that those who own caravans are using them more and there has also been an influx of new people to caravanning. This has led to the NCC reporting that some parks have seen increases of 25 percent and more in reservations.

The NCC’s Director General, John Lally commented “This is good news for the many local businesses – from shops, pubs and attractions to post offices and petrol stations – that rely on the tourist pound that a caravanner brings”. As for the next few months, for the caravan industry itself he comments “A hot summer, which the Met Office is now predicting, would be the icing on the cake for our industry.”

Caravanning is reported as being worth approximately £6 billion to the UK economy, and supports thousands of jobs in tourism as well as UK manufacturing and support services. Did you know that more than 95 per cent of touring caravans on UK roads are manufactured in the UK?

Both touring caravans and motorhomes will benefit from regular servicing. An annual service will involve the inspection and servicing of the habitation areas of your vehicle, including gas appliances and damp check, plus the often ignored mechanical aspects of the chassis, from brake adjustment to lubrication of corner steadies. It is designed to give you the peace of mind that your caravan or motorhome is safe and ready for use, whatever the time of year or weather forecast! Owners of nearly new caravans and motorhomes will usually need to ensure an regular service is carried out to maintain the benefit of any manufacturer or dealer warranty.

Tilshead Caravans have recently been independently assessed on workshop facilities and customer service standards and as a result have been granted Approved Workshop status. This scheme is overseen and recognised by the National Caravan Council, the Caravan Club and the Camping & Caravanning Club and is designed to ensure the highest workshop and service standards are adhered to. The scheme currently has over 200 member workshops, all following the same code of practise, distributed all around the UK.

At Tilshead Caravans, our workshop is staffed by qualified caravan, motorhome, mechanical and gas engineers, qualified to the highest standards. This means we can undertake all manner of repairs and servicing for all makes of caravans and motorhomes. This includes routine annual caravan servicing, motorhome habitation servicing, motorhome chassis and mechanical servicing for Fiat, Mercedes, Volkswagon, Peugeot and Ford based vehicles plus appliance servicing and repairs for leading suppliers such as Thetford, Truma, Al-Ko, Dometic and BPW. We also have more specialist trained engineers such as Gas safe Register (which replaced CORGI this year) registered engineers. Our on-going training policy means that engineers have also recently undergone training for such diverse skills as fitting Oyster satellite systems and electrical competency qualifications.

Tilshead Caravans also offer full supply and fitting services for all types of caravan and motorhome accessories. This includes caravan movers from PowrTouch, Reich and Truma, motorhome awnings and associated products from Fiamma and Omnistor, security systems such as alarms and tracking systems from Phantom and HAL-Locate plus televisions and aerials, satellite systems, gas changeover systems, door security products, Tyron bands and so on……..

For more details of how we may assist you for any caravan or motorhome related services please do not hesitate to contact Andy, our workshop manager, or any of the Tilshead Caravans team.