Planning permissions approved for touring, static caravan and holiday lodge pitches have increased by approximately 400% since 2007, reports Humberts Leisure

Planning permissions approved for touring, static caravan and holiday lodge pitches have increased by approximately 400% since 2007, reports Humberts Leisure – the UK’s leading leisure property consultancy. This increase has been driven by the trend for domestic holidays and highlights the continuing interest by both investors and local authorities in domestic tourism investment.   

Humberts Leisure achieved 273 successful pitch applications in 2009 and a phenomenal 664 pitch applications in 2010 to date, including a recent Isle of Wight planning decision approving 54 static holiday caravans at Landguard Holiday Park.   

The breakdown of the successful planning applications since 2006 to December 2010 is as follows: 

Touring pitches : 299

Statics               : 645

Lodges              : 188

Log cabins         : 209

Park homes       :   56 

Total Pitches    :1327

The slow decline in domestic tourism recorded by the United Kingdom Tourism Survey up to 2008 has halted and there has been a major growth in the number of UK nationals holidaying in this country through to February 2010 since which numbers have stabilised through June 2010.  

The holiday parks industry accounted for a tourist spend of some £2.6 billion in 2008, accommodating some 20% of all holiday bed nights in the UK. In 2009 this rose to £3.1 billion of spending accommodating 22% of total UK bed nights, and preliminary figures for 2010 indicate that performance will be repeated, if not improved upon. 

Martin Taylor, Director - Planning & Consulting, Humberts Leisure, comments:

“The UK has the 5^th largest tourism industry in the world, with the £114bn earned per annum supporting 2.65 million jobs across some 200,000 enterprises.  The Prime Minister’s support of tourism as one of the UK’s best opportunities for sustainable economic growth and new employment is welcome recognition for the leisure sector which hopefully will be supported by further local and national government stimulation, encouraging additional private and institutional investment.”