In the wake of Spain’s flood warnings and thousands of passengers set to potentially be stranded abroad, global accommodation provider Pitchup.com has seen a surge in UK bookings this week, with figures showing a year-on-year increase of 77% over the last week* – rising to 129% yesterday.
Pitchup.com founder Dan Yates comments: “Unsurprisingly, the biggest driver for our UK bookings tends to be weather – and we’ve got forecasts this weekend for sun and 26 degrees, compared to a rainy Spain. That said, these growth rates do seem high even compared to previous weather-related surges, which does make me wonder whether there is something else at play here.”
The reality is the majority of UK papers today lead with reports about the potential demise of Thomas Cook – one of the biggest household names in travel. Perhaps this, combined not just with bad weather but flood warnings throughout Europe, and even hurricane warnings further afield, plus significant uncertainty around Brexit and what that could mean for international travel, may well just be a bit too much for even the generally stoic British traveller.
It could mean that 2020 will be a very big year for UK travel.
Speaking to our editor Victoria Galligan at an event in Wales, Pitchup representatives highlighted the fact that Wales had recently become the area with the most campsites available in the UK – there are now 313 Wlesh sites available to choose from on Pitchup.com, overtaking Devon and Cornwall which combined have 284 campsites and had previoulsy dominated the market for some time. Scotland has also seen a significant rise in the number of camping and glamping sites being set up, with landowners capitalising on the boom in UK staycationing.
To register your site on Pitchup.com – which allows visitors to find camping and caravanning pitches, teepees, yurts, pods and lodges and caravans for hire – see pitchup.com/join
