Twenty families, who had their holidays cancelled due to the collapse of Thomas Cook, have been given a free holiday by UK holiday park owner and operator Bridge Leisure Parks.
The Milton Keynes based company posted a message on all of their parks Facebook pages this morning asking for people to tag and share the offer with any friends or families that were due to fly out with Thomas Cook this week so they could get in touch.
They were able to offer a few free breaks at each of their nine UK holiday parks located across the country in Scotland, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Devon and Cornwall. Many of the families who contacted the company were in tears when they found out they were still able to enjoy a holiday with their families.
CEO for Bridge Leisure, Andrew Howe said: “We understand just how much family holidays mean to people. They can take months or even years to plan and save up for, so to find out at the last minute that your dream holiday isn’t happening is devastating. We wanted to try and do something for as many of those families as we could.”
“We appreciate a UK holiday may not have been the holiday they were hoping for but at least it will give them time away together to make some special memories as planned. We wish we could do it for everyone but hopefully other operators in the industry will pull together and help where they can.”
A number of the families who got in contact had been due to fly out this morning and had to try and explain to upset children why they were no longer able to go on holiday. One family had been due to fly to Florida today on their daughter’s 11th birthday and have been planning the trip for two years. They are now going to stay at Hedley Wood in Devon for a much-needed break.
Bridge Leisure invests over £3 million in UK parks
Bridge Leisure Parks has announced a £3.2 million investment programme across its nine UK holiday parks, including the introduction of new luxury caravans and pet friendly accommodation.
The biggest portion of that spend is focussed on Sand le Mere Holiday Village on the North Yorkshire Coast, where over £900,000 has been earmarked for the park’s development. The investment is being used to develop new pitches and purchase new self-catering caravans of various grades and improve the infrastructure.
Trevella Park in Cornwall will benefit from over £330,000 of investment which is being spent on new superior lake view caravans, new safari tents and a substantial refurbishment of the touring shower and toilet block.
In addition, Trevella, along with Silver Sands in Moray Firth, Scotland, will be the first parks to get new luxury pet friendly caravans, which include wood effect flooring, stable doors, dog guards and outdoor taps.
Further to its new pet friendly accommodation, Silver Sands will be upgrading all its electric and water hook up points for touring guests as well as developing further locations for holiday home ownership situated next to the famous Lossimouth Links golf course and the beautiful Moray Firth.
Ashbourne Heights in the beautiful Peak district will receive a new and expanded children’s play park as well as a new café facility for the park.
Bridge’s Devon holiday park Hedley Wood is developing new pitches for holiday home ownership at the park and increasing the number of luxury ensuite touring pitches available following the popularity with customers of these as part of its development.
In North Yorkshire, Bridge Leisure’s newest addition, Bowland Fell will upgrade and improve the holiday accommodation including the provision of accessible holiday unit. General upgrades around the park will see a car charging point and improvements to lighting and landscaping.
CEO Andrew Howe said: “We are investing an additional £3.2 million which reflects the success and growth of the business overall. Staycations continue to increase in popularity, and we are expecting an even busier year due to continuing uncertainty around BREXIT and people making the smart choice to holiday in the UK.
“It’s important to keep the parks facilities and accommodation fresh but it is also important to offer a choice of different accommodation, from value to luxury to suit all budgets. Customers have increasingly high expectations and we need to ensure that we continue to update and improve all of our parks to stay ahead of our competitors. We believe this increased investment will help us do that.”
