Sales Downturn
We have some interesting trends for the first part of 2008 as the UK residents adjust to the barrage of media coverage on the northern rock crisis, ''the credit crunch'', increased living costs and general uneconomic uncertainty.
There seem to be a definite trend that consumers are thinking carefully about how they spend their disposable income.
As a direct result there has been a major upturn in the number of people planning a UK holiday this year and a boom in caravan and static caravan holiday bookings. Recent figures from the National Caravan Council and Haven Holidays (UK's leading static holiday caravan park operator) indicates there has been a 20-30% increase in advanced holiday bookings for 2008.
My Holiday Caravan have also monitored a 3 fold increase in Google searches for the term ''caravan'' which seems to reinforce these statistics.
We have also seen a change in attitudes to overseas holidays and resistance to multiple foreign holidays as many consumers try to reduce their carbon foot print and save money.
However, it is more difficult to assess the impact on touring and static caravan holiday home sales as a result of these factors, although many dealers are reporting increased levels of interest from their customers.
My Holiday Caravan has completed research with the industry via website forums and word of mouth,but it is hard to establish a trend for current sales figures. it seems some customers are holding off on purchase due to uncertainty, while others are making a long term investment in UK holidays by purchasing a touring caravan or static holiday home on a UK park. Some industry ''insiders'' have also said that the profile of customers purchasing caravans generally do so from savings or have a very good credit rating and are so unaffected by the credit crunch.
As a result, in these times of doom and gloom, the UK caravan industry may be looking forward to a prosperous future.