Manufacturers have had plenty to shout about with new lodges and leisure holiday homes announced for 2019 during the show season. Upstairs bedrooms, Scandi design and hot tubs emerged as the winning trends, with spacious and luxury bathrooms high on the list of consumer must-haves.

The Hull show was the first full showcase for what's to be expected in 2019, all the major players were at the Lawns and Cottingham golf course. Here, Andrew Jenkinson picks out just a few of the head turners…

Editor Victoria Galligan spoke to Willerby product managers Rob Lawrence and Phil Parks about the success of the company, and its new-for-2019 models…

Based in Hull and employing more than 1,000 people, Willerby recently announced year-on-year sales growth of 12.7%. Here, the product managers explain what goes on behind-the-scenes at the firm’s innovation division, and why the brand is (after 70 years) the UK’s largest manufacturer of holiday homes and lodges.

There has been a worrying and significant rise in the number of confirmed cases of Legionnaires' disease over the past two years.

Overall, the annual number of laboratory-confirmed Legionellosis cases in England & Wales was lower in 2016 (359) than in 2015 (390).  But the number of Legionnaires' disease cases rose to 448 in 2017. In 2018, in the eight months up until the end of August, the number of reported/notified cases of Legionnaire’s disease was already 447.

Every year, Oxon Hall Touring Park and Oxon Pool Holiday Home Park have an official switch-on of their own impressive Christmas lights a few days after the town’s lights ceremony.

The 2018 switch-on will be celebrated with a hog roast on November 17, which is free for holiday home owners on the park and people staying on the touring park. In return, the managers will ask for a donation to the Motor Neurone Disease Association, the charity chosen by parks owner Morris Leisure and sister company Morris Lubricants in 2018.

Last year, the parks raised £2,865 for The Alzheimer’s Society. Such is the popularity of the Christmas lights switch-on weekend that pitches on the touring park have been fully booked since January.

Luxury holiday homes operator, Park Leisure, offers deluxe Glamping at Littondale Country and Leisure Park. 

This autumn, holiday-makers can experience sleeping beneath the stars, in bespoke Safari Tents and Mega Pods, in the heart of the stunning Yorkshire Dales National Park. 

Providing a relaxing environment and the opportunity to connect with nature, the Mega Pods offer spacious accommodation for groups of up to four guests. Furnished to the highest standard, the heated pods are completed with a fully equipped kitchenette, media system and ensuite shower rooms. Outdoors is a compact wooden veranda providing the perfect spot for a mug of hot cocoa.

Senior executives from the Caravan and Motorhome Club took a behind-the-scenes look this autumn at a major Lake District holiday park which is meeting new staycation opportunities.

Skelwith Fold in Ambleside, Lake District was the venue for the visit following a study tour earlier in summer to the Club's Coniston Park Coppice by members of BH&HPA's Cumbria branch.

The delegation was headed by the Club's director general Nick Lomas, and the aim was to see how one of the organisation's commercial counterparts was adapting to an evolving market.

Skelwith Fold director Henry Wild, who led the tour of the 130-acre grounds, said there was ample evidence this year that the demand for holidays in the UK was continuing to rise.

The new-for-2019 Morelo Palace motorhome heads to Birmingham’s NEC along with more than 700 new-season tourers, motorhomes, campervans, holiday homes and trailer tents displayed at the UK’s largest leisure vehicle show from 16 to 21 October. 

A family business, which owns two caravan parks on the outskirts of Llanidloes, added another accolade to its growing list when it collected the Growth Award at the Powys Business Awards.

Clywedog Riverside Holiday Home Park and Red Kite Touring Park collected the award, sponsored the Development Bank of Wales, at the annual awards dinner held at The Hafren, Newtown. The awards are organised by Mid Wales Manufacturing Group.

The Onions family has owned Clywedog Riverside Holiday Home Park since 1996 and expanded in 2016 to develop Red Kite Touring Park, which has been a great success.

Few businesses can say they’ve been around for almost 90 years, let alone that they’ve belonged to the same family over all this time, but Roundstone Caravans in Southwater, West Sussex is the exception.  

Founded in 1930 by Sussex resident and touring caravan devotee John William Whitehouse (Bill), Roundstone Caravans first started out building and selling trailer caravans. Along with wife Beatrice, Bill lived on the site – where the company still stands today – in a large rectangular van high off the ground on iron-tyred cart wheels.