Posts Tagged ‘Caravans For Sale Scotland’

 Secure your holiday memories, safe in the knowledge that you are in control of you and your family’s precious time…

Make the most of the World Cup this year … SCORE with US!   The full time whistle is about to blow on this fantastic offer, visit our parks website to find out more details and arrange your VIP Park Tour.

You do not need to be a massive football fan to qualify for this fantastic offer.  Simply invest in the holiday home of your dreams OR upgrade your existing holiday home during the World Cup and receive your very own Holiday Home Entertainment Package!

Riverview Holiday Park offers a truly inspiration riverside retreat in the Scottish Borders.

Holiday Lodge at Riverview

Situated in the picturesque village of Newcastleton, in the heart of Liddesdale Valley, this park offers a quiet and tranquil setting in the Scottish Borders.  Riverview Holiday Park offers exclusive salmon fishing on the Liddel River within the grounds of the park.  Relax, unwind and enjoy country walks through the surrounding forests or something a little more energetic; golf, cycling and horse riding are all within easy access of the Park.

Holiday Lodges here provide the perfect location for you to relax and unwind, the Lodges really do offer home from home luxury.

The village of Newcastleton is with easy reach from the park, here you will find all the essential amenities of a small village including local shops, post office, hotels, pubs, health centre, swimming pool and a very popular coffee shop!

In order to fully appreciate this Parks picturesque and tranquil location, call our friendly team today to arrange your viewing.  Call Gerry  on 01387 375042 OR 0800 111 40 50

Blue Sky Resorts will be exhibiting at the Boat and Caravan Show at the NEC from 23rd – 28th February.

Whether you prefer a retreat by the coast or a picturesque corner of the countryside, we have the perfect location for your very own holiday home. Trust our friendly team to guide you through your exciting journey and discover everything you need to know about owning the perfect holiday home on your perfect location.

Working with a number of independent holiday parks and in partnership with The Camping & Caravanning Club, Bancroft Leisure and Arthur Holgate & Son, there are a number of beautiful locations throughout the UK, including Scotland, Northumberland, the Lake District, Yorkshire, North and West Wales and The Cotswolds.

Our Holiday Home Help Desk is here to guide you through your journey to holiday home ownership. Contact our friendly team today and let us do all the hard work for you…

Freephone 0800 111 40 50
Email info@bluesky-resorts.co.uk

Visit us at Stand 2337A Hall 2

A BOOM in caravan holidays as the recession bites is paying dividends for family businesses in Scotland.

The credit crunch and collapse of the pound against the euro has prompted a surge of bookings at caravan parks and holiday homes sales as families opt to stay at home.

Many of these businesses are family-owned and have survived downturns through several generations, according to the Scottish Family Business Association.

They include Cairnsmill Caravan Park at St Andrews, run by third generation owner John Kirkcaldy with his sisters Margaret and Caroline, niece Michelle and son Alan.

John’s great uncle originally ran the site as a dairy farm and introduced the first caravans around a reservoir on the land in the early 1950s. Cairnsmill now comprises 200 static caravans and space for around 60 touring caravans.

“Because we’re a family business, we’re prepared to go that extra mile to keep the business moving, and that often means rolling up our sleeves and doing more work ourselves rather than relying on employees,” John explains.

“You’ve got to be pretty resilient and be prepared to anything, including working late at night, early in the morning and at weekends. It’s not a nine to five job which doesn’t suit everyone.” John says his father also believed in trying to meet people’s budgets rather than running the business for pure profit. This tradition has helped to keep prices competitive.

Normally Summer bookings wouldn’t start until after Easter, but the park’s phone is already ringing off the hook.

“We’re already taking bookings for July, August and September,” John says. “We usually get bookings about a month in advance, but now they’re happening at least two months’ in advance. Enquiries have definitely gone up.”

The Caravan Club recently announced that advance bookings are up 40% on last year. The Camping and Caravanning Club has also reported a 15% rise in advance bookings and expects new member signings in 2009 to rise above last year’s 53,000.   

The British Holiday and Home Parks Association tells a similar tale.

Colin Fraser, BHHPA chair in Scotland and owner of Colin Fraser Park Home Estates, says: “The credit crunch is good and bad news for the industry. Sales of caravan holiday homes are flat, which is bad news for the manufacturers, several of whom have gone into liquidation. I am very concerned tat once sales pick up we will not have a big enough manufacturing base to meet demand. Holiday parks are seeing more people coming in with touring caravans, motorhomes, tents and bookings for hiring caravan holiday homes are well up. I know that touring parks and caravan holiday home parks are going to do very well this year.”

Colin bought his first caravan 46 years ago for £95 which he rented out at Banff Links. He bought his first park 37 years ago and has never looked back. He now owns 6 parks in Aberdeen with 320 residential pitches and 67 touring pitches. His son, Kris, owns the holiday park at Buckie which has 70 caravan holiday homes and touring pitches.  

“I think the family ownership element does give the industry more resilience, because people treat the business as their baby in a way,” Colin says. “If you’re in the caravan industry, it’s something you enjoy and get great job satisfaction from. It’s not a job where you wake up in the morning and wish you weren’t going to work. Owners are proud of their caravan holiday parks. The grading of parks is done by VisitScotland ranks about 75% of them as either four or five star. So they’re kept in really good order. Many also have conservation awards from David Bellamy, with those involved having either Silver or Gold Awards.”

Competing at the quality end of the leisure market, Scotland’s 200-plus holiday parks – most of which are family owned and managed – are major players in generating the country’s annual £4.5 billion tourism income. The sector also helps to sustain many of Scotland’s estimated 200,000-plus jobs which are tourism related.

Martin Stepek, chief executive of the Scottish Family Business Association, recently gave a presentation to members of the BHHPA and believes deep family roots can help businesses survive, evolve – and thrive – through multiple downturns and generations.

“Nearly all of these holiday parks emerged from land-owing farmers, themselves family businesses, who were looking to use their land more productively,” Stepek says. “A lot of the owners now represent third, fourth and fifth generations who have lasted through as many recessions. Holiday parks came into their own after the war when people were just emerging from poverty and could really only afford a holiday for the first time. Now they’re enjoying a new resurgence as people cut back on costs and opt to stay at home rather than going abroad.”

“With improved access to education, training and professional advice specific to their distinctive model of business, we believe family firms will be the key to a strong, stable, and ethical foundation for Scotland’s economic recovery and this is where we should be investing our economic development strategies and resources.”

2009 has started with plenty of doom and gloom in the news as the Government wrestles with the problems created by the weak pound and financial chaos caused by the difficulties faced by the banking system. Amidst all this though you might be surprised to discover that interest in owning a caravan or lodge in the UK is higher than in any time since Blue Sky sold it’s first holiday home back in 2004.

We are finding that an increasing number of our customers, many of who are either retired or semi-retired are looking to caravan or lodge holiday home ownership as a way of getting value from teh money they have saved over the years.

Interest rates are at their lowest ever and that means that savings are actually losing money when inflation is taken into account and for those with tracker mortgages they are many hundreds of pounds better off.

The cost of traveling to the Continent or America is becoming prohibitive with the exchange rate increasing the cost of being abroad by 30% in the last 6 months and even with the ”cheap” airlines, flights to Spain often come up to over £150 per person once all the charges are taken into account.

So people who once thought that a holiday home on the “Costas” might be ideal are realising that something closer to home might be the answer – something they can use often, and that the family can take advantage of too.

And Blue Sky offers luxury lodges and caravans for sale all over the country and in some of the finest countryside the UK has to offer – from Inverness to South West Wales, the Cotswolds, Northumberland, The Lake District, Scotland and Yorkshire – there is something for every discerning customer looking for that perfect retreat!!

It might be that 2009 is actually the perfect time for you to look at buying your own caravan holiday home or luxury lodge. The standards of the parks and the accommodation have never been higher and this kind of holiday home offers fabulous value for money when compared to investing in overseas property, or other types of “use once” holidays (hotels etc.)

New Hampshire Luxury Lodge