Guests to UK holiday parks and campsites stay 82% longer and spend 12% more than the national tourism average. That figure comes from the 2024 Pitching the Value report, which put the sector’s visitor spending at £12.2bn. It is worth sitting with for a moment, because it quietly changes what the first hour of a stay is actually worth.
If people are staying longer and spending more once they are on your park, then the thing that decides how much of that you capture is simple: whether guests can find what you offer, and find it easily.
The first hour sets the tone
Most of a guest’s impression is formed before they have unpacked. A family who finds their pitch, the shop and the play area within a few minutes starts the holiday relaxed. A family who circles the site, misreads a faded sign and ends up back at reception starts it slightly on edge, and that mood colours the days that follow.
Longer average stays make this matter more, not less. A guest here for a week has more of the park to discover than one here for a night, and more chances to either enjoy it or miss it entirely.
People spend more when they can find more
The second half of that statistic is the interesting one. If guests spend above the tourism average, most of that spend happens on things scattered across your park: the bar, the coffee place, activities, the shop, the premium pitches someone might upgrade to next time.
None of it earns its keep if guests do not know it is there. “We never realised there was a bistro” is a lost sale that no amount of marketing before arrival can recover. A clear map, on a screen at reception and on the guest’s own phone, is one of the cheaper ways to turn things you already run into things guests actually use.
Make the park easy to read
You do not need much to close that gap. A branded map that shows the whole park at a glance, put where guests look first, does most of the work. It can live on a reception or welcome screen, and the same map can follow guests to their phones through a QR code so wayfinding is with them all week rather than just at the desk. For larger or busier parks, an interactive version lets guests filter to what they are after and tap for detail.
The test is whether a tired guest who arrived ten minutes ago can answer their own question without asking anyone.
What the number does not say
One honest caveat. The Pitching the Value figures are sector-wide averages, and your park is not the average of anything. Treat them as a reason to look hard at your own arrivals, not as a promise about your own numbers. Walk your park as a first-time guest would, or ask a few who arrived yesterday what they struggled to find. The gaps are usually obvious once you go looking.
The staycation numbers are strong, and they reward the parks that make themselves easy to enjoy from the moment a car pulls through the barrier.
