Coronavirus: Caravan parks ready to welcome back customers

Northern Ireland's caravan parks are reopening on Friday

As Northern Ireland began to tentatively ease its Covid-19 lockdown last month, much focus was placed on the country's hospitality sector.

While the plan to reopen hotels, bars and restaurants on 3 July may have garnered more headlines, BBC News NI has also received a lot of questions about the rules on caravans and campsites.

The region is home to scores of caravan sites from Fermanagh, to the north coast to the Mournes.

Many owners had been asking during the lockdown why, when the caravans are self-catering and self-contained, they could not go to them?

However on Friday, that wait comes to an end.

• NI's hotels and bars can reopen from 3 July

According to Tourism NI, the reopening of the sector is "essential to rebuilding our economy, and will allow the sector an opportunity to regain some lost business during our peak season and provide a basis for recovery and a return to growth in the future".

But just how will the caravan parks operate with the virus still in circulation?

'We are ready'

Tanya Chambers, manager of Mourneview Caravan Park, which has just over 400 pitches, said they were expecting "loads of people" on Friday.

Mourneview Caravan Park in Newcastle

"We have hand sanitiser all round the place, two-metre distance signs all round the place," she said.

"Our shop is all ready to open with social distancing measures in place, the same with our restaurant, they're going to open on Friday for carry-out only.

"So we are ready. We're keeping our play parks closed, our laundrette will be closed and our public toilets will be closed until the government tells us we can reopen those things again."

Ms Chambers said customers had been asked to fill out a risk assessment.

"They're signing to say that they are not going to land on the park with Covid-19 and pass it round to everybody down here," she said, adding that they are trusting people to tell the truth.

A perspex screen in the shop at Mourneview

"I would say everything will be fine, everybody's being sensible and everybody will be sensible," she said.

"I think they realise that this was a really serious situation and it hasn't gone away, it's still here and they don't want it happening again."

Meanwhile, nearby Sunnyholme Park has said it has been "inundated" with inquiries.

"People missed coming down to the caravans," site manager Amy Nicholson said.

Hand sanitiser has been placed at sites

"Some people have been isolating since March - even to get a drive down to Newcastle and spend the weekend in the caravan, they have really missed that.

"People have been trying to get back down, I have been inundated with calls from people."

'Bigger picture'

However, not everyone who operates parks is convinced that now is the right time to be reopening.

Dunroamin Caravan Park in Millisle

Ryan McShane, the assistant manager at Dunroamin Caravan Park in Millisle, said people from all over the island, not just one area, use their caravans.

"I just hope they all follow the guidelines we've set out for them.

"People haven't been out and they're just buzzing to get down to the caravan. We have 200 vans here, I would say come Friday every van in the park will be filled.

"You multiply that by four - the average number of people per caravan would be two to four, sometimes five - and you have a lot of people in one site. And there's 12 sites down here.

"Everybody's being put under the same pressure, they're trying to get the economy kick-started and I just think they're not thinking about the bigger picture.

"It'll be nice to see all the customers back, don't get me wrong, but it's going to be hard for them too to keep their kids in one area."

'A lot of effort'

On the north coast, Linda Martin, warden at the Juniper Hill Caravan Park near Portrush, said she expects a traffic jam on the road outside the park come 10am on Friday.

"We've been putting a lot of effort into getting everything opened," she said.

"At the minute the toilets aren't opening, if that changes we'll be opening them, we're preparing for them to be open."

The Juniper Hill site in Portrush

She added: "We're putting a lot of signage in place, hand sanitisers.

"There's enough space in the park that people can maintain that two metres and I think people are so keen to get back that they'll do anything that we tell them."

She said people had just begun to come back to their caravans when the lockdown started and they had to be turned away. Now, she said that people will use common sense when they arrive.

Social distancing measures will be in place at the parks

"People have had a hard enough time over the last three months that maybe just give them some credit for knowing [how to behave]," she said.

"We're looking forward to it, it's been a long 12 weeks. We're ready."

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