How will holiday parks look as lockdown eases?

Tony and Kevin Coker

Holiday Parks and campsites are able to reopen on Saturday, many for the first time this year

By Johnny O'Shea
BBC News

Holiday parks and campsites will soon be able to reopen after losing the first four months of their trading season. As lockdown eases, how might a staycation in a caravan or a tent look for people eager to get away? Two holiday sites in Cornwall explain how they've prepared to welcome back guests come the 4 July.

'It's going to boom'

"I have never known anything like it in 20 years of running the site," says Tony Coker, who runs Tollgate Farm, near Perranporth, with his brother, Kevin.

"We have got barely any space left between now and the end of August. But we have had a long time - four months - without anything."

The site has about 100 caravan and tent pitches and will be operating at full capacity from Saturday. Since the announcement about lockdown easing, the brothers, who don't have any employees, say demand has "gone absolutely crazy", with 60 emails a day, as well as phone calls.

Kevin hopes people will use common sense when it comes to policing the guidance.

"There has to be a certain amount of responsibility that everybody has got to take for themselves. We are hoping that people respect the social distancing and we will endeavour to do what we can to make sure that happens. It's not easy for us to police it 24/7."

The pitches are spacious and so the owners have not reduced the number of guests allowed on site

Shower and toilet blocks will be open and deep-cleaned twice a day

The brothers have implemented a number of safety precautions to allow people to maintain social distancing. Shower and toilet blocks will be open and deep-cleaned twice every day; only alternate sinks and urinals will be in operation and people will be encouraged to use their own facilities such as "toilet tents" if they have them.

The campers' kitchen will be shut and though the children's play area will be open, there will be none of the usual animal petting sessions. The pitches are already 10 to 12 metres (32 to 39ft) in size, meaning people can maintain their distance.

Usually there is a build-up to the peak of the season, says Tony, "but this year it is going to be 'boom'. We are looking forward to it with trepidation."

Kevin describes the reopening as a "soft restart" and hopes to modify their approach as the summer progresses. They are opening for an additional month in October to give people who had holidays deferred an opportunity to take their breaks this year.

"I couldn't even being to tell you how relieved we are to be opening," he says. "We totally understand concerns some [local] people have about people coming down on holiday but life has to go on. [If the whole summer had been lost] half the businesses in Perranporth would have been gone.

"Pubs I know were already struggling, restaurants, cafes, bucket and spade shops - everyone. It would have been a very different place next year."

'It will be a different experience'

Hendra is the largest independent holiday park in Cornwall, with 3,800 guests staying when it is full

Guests arriving at the much larger Hendra Holiday Park in Newquay will be welcomed by a warden wearing a transparent mask and holding a clipboard.

They will then be asked to park up, check-in over the phone and wait to receive a text once their accommodation is ready. These will be staggered, so no two guests will be in the reception area to pick up their keys and welcome packs at the same time from staff behind a screen.

"It's been a big challenge getting ourselves ready to open up," says director, John Hyatt. "We planned for several different scenarios but until the guidance came out it was difficult to plan and make sure we were 100% safe."

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Hendra

Staff wearing PPE will be a common sight at Hendra

The park has been closed for nine months, having spent £2.5m on refurbishment, including 98 new caravans, over the winter and it needs to salvage what it can from the season. It can house 3,800 guests when it is full, but will begin this summer using only half of the 600 touring pitches and there will be no camping at all.

Each caravan will be deep-cleaned by staff in Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and check-in will be later to allow for this to happen.

"We made a decision some time ago to substantially reduce our capacity to make sure we have social distancing on site and give everyone that extra bit of room," says John.

"A big reason for doing so was also bearing in mind the impact on the local community, so we are trying to balance the economic impact of guests coming to our site and spending in town but also not overloading the local infrastructure and public services."

Hendra

Usually the park employs 250 people in the summer, but that will be down to about 200

Normally, visitors would be able to use the park's on-site facilities, but for now, there will be no entertainment programme and the pools will be closed, giving their 30 lifeguards little to do.

"That was our biggest bug bear, as the pools are our jewels in the crown," says John.

The site's restaurants and bars will be open, but only for table service, and while guests can still use the 500-seat entertainment venue, there will not be any live performances or sport shown on the big screens.

Having so many facilities is like "running several businesses at once" and staff have had to consider different social distancing measures for each of its spaces. Three staff working from home have also had to rearrange 5,500 bookings.

"Since the announcement [about measures easing] we have been taking about twice as many inquiries as normal, but there is still a long way to go to hit our occupancy levels after months of lockdown," adds John.

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