HOLIDAY PARKS URGED TO ENTER 2026 UK POOL & SPA AWARDS

Holiday Parks, Caravan Parks & Hospitality Sites with swimming pools, spas, or wellness facilities are being encouraged to enter the 2026 UK Pool & Spa Awards, following a spectacular showcase of innovation at this year’s event.

The 15th edition of the awards, hosted by water leisure specialists Waterland Media, saw 250 entries from 75 companies, celebrating excellence in pool, spa, hot tub, and wellness design. Categories ranged from One-Piece Pool Project of the Year to Swim Spa Project of the Year, Energy Efficient/Eco Award, and Health & Wellness Project of the Year.

“The industry continues to raise the bar every year, with customer experience and wellbeing at the heart of design and innovation,” said Christina Connor, Managing Director of Waterland Media, publishers of Pool & Spa SCENE magazine. “We champion the companies, individuals, and products that are shaping the sector and inspiring a new era of home and commercial leisure facilities.”

This year’s awards highlighted the growing demand for wellness features that combine fitness, leisure, and family enjoyment. Popular trends include compact swim spas, quick-build one-piece pools, smart swim jet technology, and eco-efficient installations, alongside saunas and fire-and-ice wellness experiences.

Among the winners, Kelling Health Holiday Park in Norfolk, designed by Newson Pools, took home the prestigious Holiday Park Pool of the Year award, showcasing a combination of innovative design, energy efficiency, and guest-focused features. Other top performers included Buckingham Pools, Essex’s Aquascapes, Surrey’s Tanby Swimming Pools, and Northern Ireland’s Starview Hot Tubs & Outdoor Living.

For holiday parks, an award-winning pool or spa is more than a facility – it’s a key differentiator, enhancing guest satisfaction, increasing bookings, and supporting premium rates. Parks with pools, spas, or wellness suites are encouraged to enter the 2026 UK Pool & Spa Awards to gain recognition for high standards, design excellence, and operational innovation.

Full details and entry information are available at www.ukpoolandspaawards.co.uk

FROM SWIM SPAS TO LUXURY POOLS, recognition at the UK Pool & Spa Awards highlights the facilities that elevate guest experiences and boost bookings

Making Waves

The UK’s best holiday park pools are celebrated at this year’s UK Pool & Spa Awards…

The overall category winner and coveted Holiday Park Pool of the Year title went to Tydd St Giles Golf & Country Club at the recent UK Pool & Spa Awards.

The overall category winner and coveted Holiday Park Pool of the Year title went to Tydd St Giles Golf & Country Club at the recent UK Pool & Spa Awards.

The UK’s multiple water leisure sectors celebrated their biggest night of the year at the hotly-contested UK Pool & Spa Awards last month. Overall category winners across 26 categories were each presented with a certificate and a trophy by Olympic swimmer and popular TV sports presenter Sharron Davies MBE at the special prize giving and networking evening, which was held at The Vox in Birmingham. Once again, the awards recognised the outstanding achievements of the country’s holiday park sector, with the Holiday Park Pool of the Year award. Within the category, six holiday parks were shortlisted and each received a Gold standard award. “Holiday parks play a big role in the UK’s provision of water leisure facilities and we’re delighted to be able to showcase some of the very best that the industry has to offer,” says Christina Connor, editor of Swimming Pool Scene magazine, the independent publication behind the annual competition.

STAND-OUT PARKS

“We received entries from a number of stand-out parks, who clearly value their pool facilities and work hard to keep them in top notch condition. The awards go some way in rewarding that hard work and raising the profile of those parks.” The overall category winner and coveted Holiday Park Pool of the Year title went to Tydd St Giles Golf & Country Club in Cambridgeshire, for its luxury heated swimming pool. The pool, which is located within a leisure complex on the lodge development, is open to holiday home owners, holiday guests and club members and welcomes around 23,000 bathers per year. The judges felt that the immaculate appearance and dramatic criss-crossing of exposed oak beams really makes this pool a head-turner. Meanwhile, the wellness facilities including a steam room and sauna further enhance the guest experience. The leisure complex at Tydd St Giles opened in 2013 and is managed by Lauren Buckingham, who has worked at the park in various roles since she was 13. Lauren is supported by a dedicated team who work hard to maintain the high standards that customers have come to expect.

GOLD STANDARD

Parks that achieved the Gold standard in the holiday park pool category included Lady’s Mile Holiday Park in Devon, Thornwick Bay Holiday Park in Yorkshire, Plas Coch Holiday Homes in Wales, The Pickaquoy Centre Trust in Scotland and Brean Leisure Park & Holiday Resort Unity in Somerset. The operators of Brean Leisure Park also scooped a Gold standard award in the Water Leisure Operator of the Year category. The parks were presented with their certificates and awards by Olympic swimmer and popular TV sports presenter Sharron Davies MBE. “We introduced the Holiday Park Pool of the Year award last year, and it’s great to see even more parks being recognised in this year’s competition,” added Christina Connor. “The holiday park sector has certainly raised the water leisure bar this year and we hope to build on that success in the 2017 awards.Watch this space!”

Founded in 2010, the UK Pool and Spa Awards are organised by Waterland Media, the publishers of Swimming Pool Scene and Hot Tub & Swim Spa Scene, the market-leading magazines for the combined water leisure sectors. The UK Pool and Spa Awards are open to the entire water leisure industry and aim to celebrate outstanding swimming pools, swim spas, hot tubs design, management and refurbishment and the outstanding people in our industry who make a difference. On-line voting accounts for 40% of the overall vote. Voting by the Judging panel – made up of industry representatives and professionals from all over the world - accounts for 60% of the vote.

For more information on the competition, or to get involved in next year’s awards, visit www.ukpoolandspaawards.co.uk.

Lady’s Mile Holiday Park

ladyThe pool at Lady’s Mile Holiday Park in Devon is well known for being one of the warmest and cleanest pools in the area, with the average temperature around 33C. Complete with a flume and a separate paddling area, the pool very popular with young families, couples and older guests alike. The park also has a close connection to Ratcliff School for special needs, which uses the pool for private school sessions.

Thornwick Bay Holiday Park

thornThe main pool at Thornwick Bay Holiday Park was recently refurbished by Leisure Concepts. It features fun splash and spray jets, a new children’s pool area with water play slides, and an all new activity and swim pool. There’s also a new multi-lane family speed slide, new splash pool with tipping bucket, spray features and a bubble seat.

Brean Leisure Park & Holiday Resort Unity

breanThe large modern splash park at Brean Leisure is used by members of the public, holidaymakers, schools and triathlete clubs, for swimming lessons and fitness classes.
The pool was in operation for 30 years prior to the rebuild in 2011. Over £5 million was spent in the first phase of the rebuild, making the pool into a 25m indoor modern leisure facility.
The pool is operated by the House family who have owned the site for the past 70 years, and are involved in the day to day running of the business.

Plas Coch Holiday Homes

plasThe pool at Plas Coch park is open to private residents and offers a range of water-based activities such as swimming lessons, water walkers, snorkelling, scuba diving, pool parties, aqua fun and fitness classes. Welcoming up to 20,000 bathers each year, the pool is run by Park Leisure 2000, which operates ten holiday homes parks throughout the UK. The pool has recently had the walls, ceilings and floors refurbished and painted to ensure the integrity of the facility remains first class.

The Pickaquoy Centre Trust

pickaThe pool and spa the Pickaquoy Centre is used for a number of sessions from public swimming to group exercise classes, swimming lessons and inflatable sessions. Although the pool is part of the facilities the Trust manages on behalf of the Council, it is attached to the caravan and camping park and is used by holidaymakers and the general public. The pool has an annual bather load of 70,000.

Top Of The Pools

Top Of The Pools

The UK Pool & Spa Awards night took place at the new Resorts World in Birmingham and celebrated the achievements of the entire water leisure industry.

The UK Pool & Spa Awards night took place at the new Resorts World in Birmingham and
celebrated the achievements of the entire water leisure industry.

The UK’s multiple water leisure sectors celebrated their biggest night of the year at the hotly-contested UK Pool & Spa Awards.
Overall category winners across 25 categories were each presented with a certificate and a trophy at the special prize giving and networking evening, which was this year held at the brand new Resorts World complex in Birmingham.
New for 2015, the awards recognised the outstanding achievements of the country’s holiday park sector, with the introduction of the Holiday Park Pool of the Year award. Within the category, five holiday parks were awarded a Gold Standard and a further three parks gained a Silver Standard award.
“There is a real feel good factor within the water leisure industry at the moment and the outstanding entries received in this year’s UK Pool & Spa Awards exemplify that,” says Christina Connor, editor of Pool & Spa Scene magazine, the independent publication behind the annual competition.
“Holiday parks play an important role within the sector and we felt that it was about time the efforts and achievements of holiday park pool operators were recognised. We were delighted to welcome entries from a number of stand-out parks, who clearly value their pool facilities and work hard to keep them in top notch condition.”

MULTI-LEVEL SWIMMING

The pool at Craig Tara Holiday Park was named Holiday Park Pool of the Year at the recent UK Pool & Spa Awards.

The pool at Craig Tara Holiday Park was named Holiday Park Pool of the Year at the recent UK Pool & Spa Awards.

The overall category winner accolade went to Craig Tara Holiday Park in Ayshire, Scotland, following a £3 million refurbishment of the water leisure facilities last year. Billed as ‘the most successful pool in the history of Haven’, the pool at Craig Tara underwent a complete transformation by design company Leisure Concepts. The pool area now features multi-level flumes, tipping buckets, a lazy river ride, water features, new flooring and new pool mosaic finishes. During the peak season, the pool welcomes around 7,000 swimmers each week and approximately 210,000 visitors annually.

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Tomorrow’s World

tomorrows world

The holiday park swimming pool is one of the main features that keeps the visitors coming back and a potential ticking time bomb for operators legally obligated to show ‘duty of care’.

Tomorrow's World

Automatic control will dramatically reduce the risk of human error in the management of holiday park swimming pools advises Christina Connor…

Swimming pools are the marmite of the holiday park industry.

A liquid paradox – the swimming pool will be one of the main features that keep the visitors coming back.

On the other hand, if poorly maintained, that same swimming pool presents a ticking time bomb of problems for visitors, staff but fundamentally for the holiday park operator who is legally obligated to show ‘duty of care’.

“Ten years ago, many holiday parks operated on a wish and a prayer when it came to water treatment,” comments Tim Bareham of leading commercial swimming pool specialist, Cresta Leisure.

“In the majority of cases, water chemicals were dosed manually and the water balance tested with the most basic comparator, invariably intended for residential use.”

BALANCING ACT

Juggling swimmer numbers – or ‘bather load’ as it is known in the trade – presents a perpetual balancing act.

“It was very common to receive a visit or a call from a swimming pool or leisure manager at lunch time to collect vast quantities of chlorine reducer after he had tipped 40 litres of chlorine into the pool to remove the pea soup which had materialised during very heavy bather loads that morning,” recalls Tim.

“What a disaster! High chemical costs, customer complaints, bleached swimming costumes and degradation of the internal finishes of the pool.”

Forward thinking park operators with swimming pools should have automated not only the chemical dosing, but PAC (polyaluminium chloride) for continuous coagulation and Ultra Violet disinfection units to remove combined chorines and help prevent cryptosporidium.

“A holiday park with the smallest of pools will still be classified as a commercial pool,” advises Jimmy Lamb of the Pollet Pool Group, exclusive UK distributors of Bayrol automatic dosing equipment.

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