The Long and Short of Holidays at Home
New research from outdoor accommodation specialist Pitchup.com highlights Britain’s most popular short- and long-break destinations.
Thinking of adding a campsite to your farm? There’s no doubt opening up to holidaymakers is a fabulous way to make additional revenue but one thing to consider is how long your visitors may stay for. Why is this important?
“Depending on what type of site you offer, there are different implications in having guests stay for 1 night or 1 week,” says Dan Yates, founder of outdoor accommodation specialist Pitchup.com (www.pitchup.com). “If you offer glamping style accommodation with linen or tents provided, having a guest stay for one night means more frequent thorough cleaning than when you have guests stay for three or four nights.”
Continues Yates: “Knowing the average length of stay for your site can help shape your activities and services and ensure your guests are kept busy. Utilising your local area is a great way of doing this - having recommendations on attractions, walking paths, fishing lakes and local businesses to encourage visitors to explore.”
Research from Pitchup.com showed Jersey (7 nights) topped the list for longest stays in 2018, followed by its neighbour Guernsey (4.64) in second place, with the Isle of Wight (3.78), Cornwall (3.77) and County Down (3.4) rounding out the top five. For a quick getaway, Brits favoured Wrexham (1.53 nights), Lanarkshire (1.54), Hebrides (1.59), Hertfordshire (1.60) and Surrey (1.65). The average length of stay across all bookings in Britain was 2.69 nights.
Says Yates: “Longer stay destinations do a great job of utilising their local environments - Jersey and Guernsey are popular with walkers keen to explore the islands’ history. Unsurprisingly, many of the short-stay destinations are areas where we see people visiting friends and family members - destinations close to or with easy public transport links to major cities like London or Bristol. Pitching a tent or parking your caravan on site gives you your own space at a great value price compared to booking a hotel in highly populated areas such as Hertfordshire and Surrey.“
Finishes Yates: “Other short-stay destinations such as the Hebrides and Orkney Islands are places where guests usually move around after a night or two, venturing off to explore the next town, so whilst they do feature on our short stay list, we believe our guests do in fact spend a lot longer in total in these area.”
The top long and short stay destinations from Pitchup.com are below.
Top long stay destinations Top short stay destinations
Rank County # of nights Rank County # of nights
1 Jersey 7.00 1 Wrexham 1.53
2 Guernsey 4.64 2 Lanarkshire 1.54
3 Isle of Wight 3.78 3 Hebrides 1.59
4 Cornwall 3.77 4 Hertfordshire 1.60
5 County Down 3.40 5 Surrey 1.65
6 Devon 3.33 6 Orkney Islands 1.75
7 Isle of Anglesey 3.18 7 Leicestershire 1.80
8 Dumfries and Galloway 3.12 8 Greater Bristol 1.88
9 Pembrokeshire 3.06 9 West Yorkshire 1.90
10 Ceredigion 2.95 10 West Sussex 1.91
* Length of stay is based on bookings received from 8 October 2017 to 8 October 2018, and is calculated by number of nights booked in total for each county divided by number of bookings. Base: 252,114 bookings
Pictured: Ninham Country Holidays in Isle of Wight (top three images), Le Vaugrat Camp Site in Guernsey (bottom image)
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