Endurance cyclist Mark Beaumont tows a caravan…with his bicycle!
Endurance athlete Mark Beaumont demonstrated how fast he can tow a caravan with a bicycle at the Horiba Mira test track in Nuneaton, ahead of the Motorhome and Caravan Show, which starts from October 15th at the NEC Birmingham. Beaumont reached a speed of 11.093 km/h using an Orbea Gravel bike and a custom-made towing device to ensure that the bike supported the weight of the Freedom Jetstream First Class caravan. Mark Beaumont has become a household name through his documentaries about ultra-endurance and adventure. Having smashed the circumnavigation cycling World Record twice in his career, he now holds this 18,000-mile title in a time of 78 days and 14 hours, averaging 240 miles a day. His epic documentaries have taken viewers to over 100 countries, into the Arctic, the high mountains and around the Commonwealth, also surviving capsize in the mid-Atlantic. Mark will be at the 2019 Motorhome and Caravan Show at the NEC in Birmingham on the opening day, 15th October and will be outside Hall 16 demonstrating to visitors and press how to tow a caravan with his bicycle. Mark will also appear at the Freedom to Go theatre at 11:30am and will give a talk about his epic adventures. The Motorhome and Caravan Show promises a great day out for the whole family. Set over 11 halls, the Motorhome and Caravan Show will welcome around 100,000 visitors across six days. With the largest display of leisure vehicles and accessories all under one roof, the show is a must-visit for those looking to get into a leisure vehicle lifestyle and seasoned caravanners alike, offering endless inspiration and exclusive offers that won’t be found anywhere else. Visitors will get a first look at new-for-2020 product launches and the latest gadgets and innovations. They will also benefit from expert advice and top tips, free towing, motorhome manoeuvring and campervan test drives, exclusive show offers and details of the latest holiday sites and destination trends. Free entry to the Motorhome and Caravan Show 2019 is available for children 15 and under and advance tickets are available priced from £8.50* at www.mcshow.co.uk Further information is available at www.mcshow.co.uk where the latest exhibitors, celebrities and features will be updated regularly.
Wigwam® Holidays Working in Tandem with Cycling Business
Wigwam® Holidays is proud to announce its first glamping site in Suffolk, working in ‘tandem’ with renowned cycling business, Maglia Rosso which is set to open on 28th October 2019. Six luxury Running Water Deluxe Wigwam® Cabins are now in place at the site, which is located in a peaceful meadow next to the Maglia Rosso cycle centre and country café in the pretty village of Hawstead. Father and son business partners, Barry and Matt Denny, said: “We are delighted to launch our new glamping concept opening next month. “We’ve had a lot of preparation work for our glamping accommodation and we are very pleased as the cabins are now in place ready for the autumn season. “Our site is ideal for families and if they also have an interest in cycling, then we’re the perfect site! “However we are keen to stress that we are the perfect site for a staycation in this lovely part of Suffolk.” Wigwam® Holidays Maglia Rosso is close to the historic market town of Bury St Edmunds, rich with historical connections and home to Suffolk’s only cathedral. The site is also close the beautiful villages of Lavenham, Long Melford and Clare. Nearby attractions include Kentwell Hall and Nowton Park with Newmarket and Cambridge also within easy driving distance. Maglia Rosso operates from the former Arms public house, with key focus on cycling for leisure and sport. The site has access to a variety of loops to suit all cycling abilities, along with servicing and a fleet of bikes to hire. Barry said: “For us the most important aspect of the development of the glamping accommodation is to welcome cyclists and non-cyclists alike. While we are passionate about the sport, we are also keen to attract glamping guests to this lovely part of Suffolk.”
Bridge Leisure Parks – Don’t let the rain stop play when holidaying in the UK
Bridge Leisure Parks are giving camping and touring customers the chance to protect their holidays from being ruined by wet weather by offering an innovative ‘Rainy Day Plan’. For just £20 extra, customers will have the flexibility to change their holiday dates if the weather forecast is looking very wet and rainy during their upcoming stay. If within 48 hours of their holiday the forecast is for heavy rain, they can change their holiday start dates within a 2-week window if they have taken out the ‘Rainy Day Plan.’ Rachel Mabbs, Head of Marketing and Holiday Sales said: “We all know how miserable camping and touring can be in wet weather. Muddy touring pitches and damp tents can really ruin people’s holiday, so rather than having to cancel it and lose money we wanted to give our customers an alternative option. They simply contact the park within 48 hours of their holiday start date, and we will work with the customer to find an alternative date within the next 2-weeks at the same park.” “The great British weather can be very unpredictable and at the end of the day we want people who book with us to have a fantastic holiday. This is our way of giving our camping and touring customers the best possible chance of having a lovely stay when they book with us.” Bridge Leisure Parks are trialling the new ‘Rainy Day Plan’ at five of their UK holiday parks; Ashbourne Heights in Derbyshire, Trevella near Newquay, Hedley Wood on the Devon and Cornwall boarder, Silver Sands in Lossiemouth Scotland and Sand le Mere on the East Yorkshire Coast. It applies to new camping and touring bookings with a holiday start date from the 16th September until the end of the 2019 season. Full terms and conditions can be found on each of the holiday parks websites. https://www.trevella.co.uk/special-offers/touring-rainy-day-plan/ https://www.hedleywood.co.uk/special-offers/touring-rainy-day-plan/ https://www.ashbourne-heights.co.uk/special-offers/touring-rainy-day-plan/ https://silver-sands.co.uk/special-offers/touring-rainy-day-plan/ https://sand-le-mere.co.uk/special-offers/touring-rainy-day-plan/
Away Resorts Unveils Plans For Outdoor Heated Pool
Get ready for a dip! Away Resorts unveils plans for stunning outdoor heated pool. The luxury pool will complete £7 million expansion and renovation plan at Tattersall Lakes Country Park holiday development Lincolnshire holidaymakers and owners will soon be able to enjoy some luxury fresh air swimming – after plans were unveiled for a stunning new outdoor heated pool at Tattershall Lakes Country Park. Work will begin soon on the £1.5+ million pool which will offer guests even more opportunities to relax and unwind from next year. The plans are the latest in a series of upgrades to take place at the popular holiday park. Earlier last month (September) parent company, Away Resorts, unveiled £5.5 million of new attractions and facilities, including an indoor Splashzone, private beach, lakeside sky bar, as well as additional spacious, contemporary Safari Tents and Camping Pods with private hot tubs. Boasting three bars, outdoor cinema sessions, mini golf, archery, a high ropes course, handy camp shop and seven lakes – including great spots for fishing and watersports – Tattershall Lakes Country Parkprides itself on being able to offer something for everyone. For younger children, supervised play sessions provide a wide range of arts, crafts and outdoor activities, while 8-12-year-olds will love trying their hand at more physical challenges with snorkelling, body zorbing and laser tag all available on the ‘My Active’ programme. Well-behaved dogs are welcome too. Just 40 minutes’ drive away from Skegness and 30 minutes’ from historic Lincoln, Tattershall Lakes is a great location for a romantic break, friends’ getaway or holiday with the family. Speaking about the multi-million pound investment, Away Resort Holiday’s Chief Executive, Carl Castledine, said it was an exciting time for the company and the region. He said: “Tattershall Lakes Country Park is one of our most popular resorts and our customers love holidaying in this wonderful part of the world. We are really proud to offer guests improved and exciting facilities. The new pool is going to be the icing on the cake and we can’t wait to be able to get it up and running. Get ready to enjoy floating entertainment and some cracking pool parties!’
Oderase reveals that a damp smell is the biggest turn off for caravan owners
When asked which caravan smell was the worst, 37 per cent stated that a damp and musty smell was the least pleasant, closely followed by the body odour of their fellow caravaners (28 per cent). Other smells causing distress include: Sweaty feet (14 per cent) Wet Dog (10 per cent) Farm smells (9 per cent) Cooking smells (2 per cent) The proximity of the toilet facilities to the living areas in close-quarters can also be a concern for mobile or static caravans and holiday homes. The survey* was conducted by national data firm PanelBase, which polled more than 1500 people from across the UK for Cambridge-based Aqdot, the company behind Oderase Oderase Open Plan Living Spray and Oderase Bathroom Spray are new fragrance-free air fresheners, endorsed by Allergy UK. Oderase is different from other air fresheners because it is so effective at erasing bad odours that it does not need to contain any masking fragrances that can smell really strong and overpowering in close-quarters, and could potentially cause allergies. Oderase Open Plan Living Spray is effective in the air and on fabrics. It’s ideal for removing lingering cooking smells, sweaty body smells, and of course those unpleasant damp and musty smells. The technology used in Oderase is patented. The bad odour molecules in the air are quickly attracted to the Oderase odour eliminator, which in turn captures the bad odours and erases them from the air. Mark Wrighton, Marketing Leader at said: “Caravan holidays are a beloved part of British holiday culture and millions of families create wonderful memories every year. However, when a group of people are together in such close quarters for an extended period of time, it’s not long before smells can start to become an issue. Oderase Bathroom Spray and Oderase Open-Plan Spray offer a great solution for these enclosed spaces as they remove the unpleasant smells without masking them with heavy fragrances which is important in a small area, both from a comfort and health perspective. The small pump action sprays should be an integral part of every caravanners survival pack!” www.oderase.co.uk
Mature Planting – Call In The Experts For Instant Results
Mature planting provides instant impact and maturity to key areas, shelter to exposed areas and, perhaps most useful of all, privacy and security to give both you and your customers peace of mind. Wykeham Mature Plants are experts in supplying instant transformations tailored to the site conditions and to the requirements of your business. Supplying the trade with high quality large trees, specimen shrubs, instant hedging and screening plants for over forty years, the Yorkshire-grown stock is guaranteed to be hardy and free from imported pests and diseases. Nationwide delivery is available, and for sites located within a hundred miles or so from the nursery, site visits are available to provide consultations on your site and, if required, a professional and guaranteed expert planting service to help give your scheme the best possible start. For further information contact one of the experienced horticulturalists at enquiries@wykeham.co.uk tel 01723 862406 OR see www.wykehammatureplants.co.uk
Strongarm Tactics To Combat Online Fraud?
A new process for handling online card payments could soon stop customer purchases if traders don’t comply with the new rules. Adam Bernstein explains the change. Online fraud is huge and according to Finextra Research, between 2017 and 2018, £4.1bn was stolen as a result of this type of theft. And to illustrate how personal the problem is, the firm quotes a survey commissioned by comparethemarket.com of 2,000 UK adults which showed that 22% of those surveyed were defrauded in the last year this way. Europe has, for some time, been worried about the problem of card fraud and a new process known as Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) made under the Revised Directive on Payment Services (PSD2) will eventually be in place. Originally set for 14 September, in common with other EU states, the UK has postponed introduction for 18 months to give firms more time to prepare. SCA is going to affect how the trade sells online. SCA is to all intents and purposes an extra layer of security designed to prevent payment fraud. It ensures that online card transactions become more secure through “multi-factor authentication” – a second check to demonstrate that both the transaction and card holder are genuine. The aim of SCA is to be the ‘chip and pin’ of the online world; and rather like chip and pin, SCA will apply to transactions over a certain value – €30. But while SCA targets the online transaction, Mark Nelsen, Senior Vice President, Risk and Authentication Products at card processor Visa, says that banks and merchants may also need to regularly check that contactless payments are made by the correct cardholder too – by asking for a PIN. “This,” he says, “might occur after a contactless card has been tapped five times in succession, or when €150 has been spent using only contactless taps.” As to how it’ll work, SCA could mean any one of numerous authentication methods such as an online PIN or password, a device that only the cardholder can authenticate – say a smartphone, or a biometric trait such as a fingerprint or facial recognition that is clearly very personal. SCA is going to mean a marked change to how firms sell online and how an estimated 420m customers in Europe – including the UK – buy at a distance. And for some there are worries that this extra layer of protection will add unnecessary complexity which will irritate customers who subsequently abandon their ‘shopping carts’ part way through the buying process – leading to lost sales. Just as the GDPR revolutionised how data protection is managed and individuals access their information, so SCA is going to change how retail works. What is PSD2? As the name suggests, PSD2 is an update on the original Payment Services Directive (PSD) that was brought into force in 2007. Its stated goals were for a single market for payments with easier and more efficient cross border payments so that it mattered not if a payment was made to another within the same member state or to a party in a different member state. PSD2 expands on PSD by permitting third parties to access an individual’s account information via the ‘Open Banking’ protocol; enhancing consumer rights, especially in relation to currency charges; and enhancing card holder security via SCA. Why now? Change was clearly needed. According to a UK Finance report in 2018, UK Payment Markets , in 2017 there were 3.1bn credit card payments – an increase on the previous year of 13%. The same report reckons that by 2027 there will be 3.9bn credit card payments a year. In comparison, there were 13.2bn debit card payments in 2017 (up 14% on the previous year) and 2027 could see some 19.7bn debit card payments. And with rising levels of card use come increasing risks of fraud. The European Central Bank, in its Fifth report on card fraud, published September 2018, found that that cards issued within Europe saw fraudulent transactions to the tune of €1.8bn in 2016 and that 73% of that sum related to card not present transactions. That said, it’s worth noting that not everyone is in favour of SCA. In 2016, card processor Visa argued that the new process would risk disrupting online shopping while not necessarily increasing security . The point is well made from its perspective as its fortune naturally depends on transaction volume. Changes online businesses need to make Compliance with the new regime is mandatory. There will be no exceptions and if the online trader doesn’t comply then all transactions will be automatically declined by the cardholder’s bank when they attempt to make a purchase. Further, by not planning ahead and developing authentication processes that offer the least friction to consumers traders could see huge falls in sales as consumers switch off and march with their feet. Considering that, according to Ecommerce Europe in its European Ecommerce Report 2018 Edition, the European business to consumer online economy is worth around €602bn in 2018 (up from €307bn in 2013), if only 10% of consumers – let alone a potential 25% that could walk – abandon a transaction because of complexity or irritation then firms stand to lose huge sums. But with new rules comes opportunity – a chance for firms to market themselves to customers as both being secure and trustworthy as well as having the simplest way possible of complying with the new rules. Of course, consumers want protection, but in today’s modern world, they also want simplicity and they want it now. The rollout won’t be easy. While EU demands compliance, every member state will see different interpretations of PSD2. Whether that’s from the banks, card issuers or central bank, there will be differences. On top of this there is the €30 exemption to take into account. Clearly then, the first step for any online trader is to set their systems to recognise when transactions need to abide by SCA (because they are above the €30 threshold) or when
Hot tubs are great for business!
Having a hot tub as part of a holiday accommodation package is becoming more of a requirement, than an optional extra, as holidaymakers have become more aware of the joy of being in warm water, with the proven lifestyle and health benefits of exercise and hydrotherapy. The interest in hot tubs has proliferated, and they have become a very popular internet search term, so investing in them should assist you to increase your bookings and therefore your revenue! It is essential to plan the layout of the hot tubs and to get any relevant permissions from the applicable planning authority/ environment agency. Having the right equipment and the correct water hygiene management and maintenance regimes in place is also vital. Inferior quality products can wreak havoc with your business and will not only inconvenience your customers but could potentially be a court case waiting to happen! Equally important is to know your responsibilities for looking after the equipment and having copies of essential industry publications. Rather than having to look for the information from a variety of sources, the best place to access this type of information is through BISHTA. BISHTA provides their members with a dedicated online members’ resource, with access to documents such as the BISHTA Standards, Marketing Toolkits, Members Factsheets and Workforce Development opportunities. Through technological developments, many hot tubs now come with an immense amount of features, such as; hydromassage jets, therapeutic lounge seats for full body massage, directional jets, ambient mood lighting, glass touchscreen controls systems, waterfalls and some even come with wifi. Some hot tubs have a mobile phone app to control the hot tub from anywhere and make sure it is ready at the optimum temperature when your guests arrive. With so much choice available, it can get a little confusing when you are looking to purchase your first business hot tub, especially with the boundaries of HSG282 to take into account. Good news! BISHTA offers an invaluable source of information to find the right dealer or a particular brand. Purchasing from a BISHTA member is your assurance of buying with confidence. You will be able to buy from a hot tub dealer who is; knowledgeable of British and European standards. Trained in all aspects of hot tub safety and water hygiene and who are signed up to a published code of ethics, and sells safe and reputable products from respected sources (which comply with industry standards) and who back their products with comprehensive warranties, maintenance plans and high levels of customer service. To take a step closer to adding a great new feature to your business, visit www.bishta.co.uk BISHTA – British and Irish Spa and Hot Tub Association E: admin@bishta.co.uk T: +44 01264 356211 www.bishta.co.uk
Caravan show moves from Hull to Harrogate
The oldest event in the caravan exhibitions calendar is to move to a new location in September next year as the Caravan show moved from Hull to Harrogate. After 44 years in the grounds of the University of Hull at The Lawns in Cottingham, the trade and public exhibitions featuring the majority of the industry’s manufacturers will in future be held at the Yorkshire Event Centre, home of the enormous Great Yorkshire Show in Harrogate. Next year’s public show – the Caravan, Motorhome and Holiday Home Expo 2020 – will be held over three days, rather than the traditional two, from Friday to Sunday 11th to 13th September, followed by the trade show on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday 14th-16th September. The exhibition is run by a group of Yorkshire-based caravan manufacturers, HERCMA – which, along with many other companies in the industry, uses the annual event to launch its new season’s models. A spokesman for the group said the move to the much larger site would enable many more exhibitors to be accommodated as well as increase the scope of the show with, in particular, plenty of room for motorhomes. “We see this change as a tremendous and exciting opportunity to make the event even bigger and better within the extensive and attractive grounds of the Yorkshire Event Centre,” he said. “We wanted the event to remain in Yorkshire and the move to a more central position in the country opens up a whole new catchment area, with over six million people living within an hour’s drive. “We are certain we’ll attract a substantial new audience to what will be a fantastic show in a spectacular and iconic location which is already well-known to vast numbers of people. The Great Yorkshire Show actually attracts more than 135,000 people over its three days.” More information is on www.holidayhomeexpo.com. Photo: Jane Davis
