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?