UK Holiday Centres and Parks Market Report 2024

This holiday park market report looks into how consumers are responding to holiday parks and centres across the UK. Examining preferences from your customers’ point of view can enable adaptive innovation and growth. Below we provide the key topics covered and offer hand-selected findings from the full report document.

Key Topics Covered

• Consumer experience with UK holiday centres and holiday park breaks.
• Demographic profile of visitors.
• Duration of trips and who people stay with at holiday centres and parks.
• Consumer intentions to visit holiday centres and parks over the next 12 months.
• Visitor satisfaction levels and recommendations for operators to improve satisfaction.
• Awareness and usage of the leading brands and consumer brand perceptions.

UK Holiday Park Market Overview

Economic troubles aren’t stopping consumers’ holiday plans, with plans to book a holiday reaching a peak. Yet, the stress of the cost of living is impacting holiday spend, with only 4% saying the cost-of-living crisis is “no longer a problem”.

Holiday parks market size

Estimating the market size of UK holiday centres and parks is challenging, as there is not a firm market distinction between holiday centres/parks, and camping/caravanning parks. With this in mind, Mintel has estimated based on leading holiday centre/park operators that the value of ‘holiday centres and parks’ is £3.5 billion total revenue, up 20% on pre-pandemic levels.

Holiday Parks Market Insights

• Physical activity holidays appeal. More than a quarter of travellers have taken both a holiday centre/park trip and a physical activity holiday in the past five years. Holiday park brands have a key opportunity here to offer their own physical activities or partner with specialist providers.

• The ‘extended short break’ remains the most popular holiday length. Holiday centres and parks are currently a short break market, benefiting from the growing consumer trend towards more frequent—but shorter—holidays in recent years.

• The vast majority are satisfied with their holiday centre/park visit. Nine in 10 consumers were at the least ‘satisfied’ with their holiday centre/park visit overall. Scenery is driving this satisfaction with most stating satisfaction on that front.

What’s Next for the UK Holiday Park Market?

While satisfaction is high among holiday park/centre visitors, there is room to appeal to evolving consumer preferences. Industry players can look to expand offerings to include physical activity and wellness, and begin incorporating sustainability as a key part of their service and messaging.

Buy the full report for a complete look at real questions with real answers from your potential customers.

Report Scope

This Report covers the market for UK holiday centres and holiday parks.

There is no clear-cut distinction between these categories, however, most sites offer a mix (in varying degrees) of accommodation types, facilities such as food and drink, entertainment and activities for adults and children.

This Report focuses more on larger-scale operators and sites, for example Center Parcs, Butlin’s, Haven and Parkdean Resorts, plus a range of ‘mid-tier’ holiday park brands, rather than small-scale camping and caravanning sites. For more detailed coverage of the full camping and caravanning market, please see Camping and Caravanning – UK, 2024.

Meet the Expert

Jennie researches and writes reports on the Travel & Leisure sectors, having joined Mintel in September 2021. She gathers compelling and actionable insight across demographic groups. Jennie previously acquired research and analytical experience whilst completing her Master of Research (MRes) in Political Economy from the University of Bristol.

Growth is tepid, and big innovations are rare. Still there’s cause for optimism as brands embed intelligence into their products and launch innovative campaigns.

Jennie Bryans
Senior Travel & Leisure Analyst