East devon

LONDON MEET IS JUST CAPITAL

Posted on March 13, 2024

LONDON MEET IS JUST CAPITAL

DEVON MP Kevin Foster was invited by Beverley Holidays to the recent British Holiday & Home Parks Association annual conference.

Devon MP Kevin Foster was invited by Beverley Holidays to the recent British Holiday & Home Parks Association annual conference. Torbay MP Kevin Foster was the guest of Paignton’s Beverley Holidays at February’s annual conference of the British Holiday & Home Parks Association.

Held at the QEII Conference Centre in Westminster, just a short distance from Parliament, the event was attended by representatives from many of Britain’s 3000-plus holiday parks. The MP was welcomed to the conference by Beverley directors Claire Flower, Nicola Furneaux and Gary Furneaux whose family business last year marked its 65th anniversary.

Started originally by Claire and Nicola’s grandparents in the 1950s, Beverley Holidays is today one of Devon’s most thriving park enterprises providing over 50,000 bed nights each year. It employs up to 180 people in the main holiday season, and maintains 70 full-time posts all year round with training opportunities for those seeking a career in tourism and hospitality.

Kevin Foster heard at the conference how the park was currently investing in new top-end accommodation and guest facilities for visiting families and holiday home buyers in 2024: “For 65 years, Beverley Holidays has been making magical holiday memories for those who visit our beautiful bay at the heart of the English Riviera,” he said. “For Torbay, family fun is a serious business, with thousands of local jobs and many businesses supported by our holiday parks.

“They make our bay what it is, and it was great to join the team from Beverley Holidays at the conference to reflect on how national policy can further support them,” added Kevin Foster. Claire Flower told the MP that Beverley was proud to be able to play a major role in the tourism economy of East Devon, and that its visitors supported many other local businesses.

The conference, she said, had coincided with the publication of a new independent study which examined the economic impact of holiday parks in the UK. It found that parks generate £12.2bn in visitor expenditure each year in the UK and provide over 226,000 FTE jobs whilst representing 5% of the GDP of all UK tourism.

Holiday Snaps with Peter Lawrence, Andrewshayes Holiday Park

Posted on July 13, 2016

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Holiday Snaps with Peter Lawrence, Andrewshayes Holiday Park

Peter Lawrence is the General Manager at the Andrewshayes Holiday Park that offers a mix of static caravans, camping and seasonal tourer pitches on a rural park in East Devon. Established by his grandmother 80 years ago, Peter oversees the day-to-day smooth running of the third generation site, as well as strategic planning.

What challenges are currently facing the holiday park sector?
The sector has fragmented with new types of holidays now on offer and a range of facilities. Honest marketing is important to ensure that customers know what sort of park they have booked onto and we can therefore better manage their expectations. For example, as a medium sized park we do not offer a full entertainment programme, however this is not a requirement for all families.

How have visitor expectations changed during your time in the holiday business and how have you reacted to those demands?
Expectations are far higher today, people are taking more holidays and demand quality. Trying to improve the quality of the holiday park and the service while maintaining good value for money is the challenge.

If you had to identify one element, what is the most crucial aspect to the success of the park?
Customer service has to be second to none. Even the most disgruntled customer can be managed with good customer service.

Where do you see the park in 10 years’ time?
We would like to expand the park, but due to being in an AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) that is unlikely to happen for us. We are looking into glamping options and the possibility of converting existing static caravan pitches into lodges. With a finite space it’s about the best return on the land we have.

What has been your most challenging experience in the industry?
One year three families with tourers arrived at the end of July for their holiday, all convinced that they had booked three pitches for three weeks at the end of their last holiday - they hadn’t. Of course at that time of the year we were virtually full so there was a lot of juggling involved to keep them happy!

What is the best piece of business advice you have been given and by whom?
My grandmother once told me “you reap what you sow”. I think that’s sound advice for life in general and in business it’s certainly true that the more effort and hard work you put in the more you get back.

How is the summer season shaping up for Andrewshayes Holiday Park?
Bookings are coming in well for the peak weeks, it’s the shoulder months we always need to work hard to fill. Of course we are hoping for some good weather to really keep customers happy.

Where do you go on holiday?
I like a complete change of scenery and have a passion for skiing which ties in nicely with the park being closed.

Anything else you would like to add or flag up?
The rise of social media is a new challenge for us but is also a great opportunity, especially for parks with smaller marketing budgets to help get their name out there. As an inland site we are always up against the more sought after coastal parks and we find we have to work harder to attract customers.

 

 

East Devon Park Leads Green Tourism

Posted on November 29, 2013

The multi-award winning, family-run, Oakdown Holiday Park is the only holiday park in East Devon to hold an AA Five Star pennant.

East Devon Park Leads Green Tourism

In the past year alone, Oakdown Holiday Park on the Jurassic Coast in East Devon, has received seven coveted awards – among them a Highly Commended Visit England Award for Excellence 2013, Practical Caravan Magazine’s Best Green Site 2013 and a 16th consecutive David Bellamy Gold Environmental Award.

Oakdown is owned and run by the Franks Family; Doreen and Roger, Alastair and Andrianna and their team of dedicated staff. It is the only holiday park in East Devon to hold an AA Five Star pennant 2013/2014 – the equivalent of a top star rated hotel.

Oakdown Holiday Park is located between Branscombe and Sidmouth on the East Devon Heritage coast and lies within East Devon’s designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Its owners, The Franks family, have farmed the area for five generations, introducing the first static holiday caravan to the farm in 1951 and opening as Oakdown Holiday Park, catering for campers and touring caravans as well as statics, 21 years later.

Now, with 16 luxurious caravan leisure lodges, 150 landscaped pitches for touring caravans, motor homes and tents and 55 privately owned caravan holiday homes, the 20 acre park welcomes several hundred guests during peak season weeks and 2013 has been a very busy year for the family run park with the beautiful British sunshine making an all important appearance.

The Franks continue to work hard to maintain a consistently high level of customer satisfaction and strive to be top of the game in all aspects of holiday park life. The driving factor behind what they do came from the vision to become a ‘green’ holiday park - a vision that was established before the concept of green tourism was even invented. Oakdown was the recipient of one of the very first David Bellamy Gold Environmental Awards in 1997 – an accolade it has continued to be awarded every year for the past 16 years.