In the past few years high end camping or “glamping” as it is more commonly known, has become increasing popular, with a number of new sites springing up in the district.
Now as families weigh up whether to risk airport and port chaos to go abroad or remain in the UK, how is this relatively new holiday industry faring?
Some providers in the Harrogate district have reported an increase in trade, others have seen a downturn.
This has been put down to an increase in the cost of living, as well as last year’s demand being “unprecedented” due covid travel restrictions.
The local glamping industry
Tom Sterne, owner of Yurtshire, between Ripon and Pateley Bridge, said advance bookings for the luxury glamping and wellness retreat have been growing by the day.
He said:
“Since the news about flight cancellations and chaotic scenes at airports hit the media, the number of enquiries we have received has increased markedly.
“When we opened last July, we benefited from the sudden switch to staycations, from people across the Harrogate district and further afield, who would normally fly off to the sun and we are witnessing a repeat this year.”
A break in Nidderdale
Lindsay and Chris Morrell, whose annual summer holidays in Tuscany have been on hold since the covid lockdowns began in March 2020, have booked Italy next year.
But the couple, who used to live in Harrogate and have since moved to Northumberland, decided to take a break in Nidderdale for their 2022 getaway.
Ms Morrell said:
“With the problems people are encountering at airports, we didn’t want to risk booking for Tuscany this year and hope that issues affecting overseas travel will be sorted out by the time we are ready to venture abroad.”
Chris and Lindsay Morrell
For friends Carroll Shaw and Annie Brown, who live in Ripon, overseas holidays are no longer on the agenda.
Ms Shaw said:
“Why would anybody who lives so close to the gorgeous Nidderdale countryside, want the hassle of flying thousands of miles to lie on a crowded beach?”
A slow start
Louise Pullan co-owns the Breaks Fold Farm camping and glamping site in the Washburn Valley, next to Thruscross Reservoir, in the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
She told the Stray Ferret that the beginning of the year had been very quiet, but it had started to pick up.
Breaks Fold Farm.
Ms Pullan, who runs the site with her husband Richard, said:
“It has been a very slow start.
“We were 60 per cent down in May and June based on our 2019 bookings.
“However we have seen a rapid uptake in bookings into July and August in all our accommodation.
“People are watching their finances and holidays maybe aren’t top of their priority lists.
“We have noticed we are getting a lot of local guests from Harrogate and Skipton, so maybe the fuel prices are also having an impact on people’s choices.”
Ms Pullan said the campsite’s main customer base is short stays of two to three nights.
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A difficult financial time
She said the price had been kept the same for the last three years, with discounts on longer stays to try and help people out during what is a difficult financial time.
She said:
“This is difficult as we as a business are now seeing increasing costs. For example our waste emptying costs have gone up 30 per cent, a bottle of gas has gone from £55 to £85 and our business insurance is double last year’s.
“We can’t afford to employ somebody this year due to soaring inflation, which is putting a huge pressure on us as a two-man band.
“Energy prices are just completely unbelievable and some of our fellow owners are up on 57p per kw, seeing their energy bills over double on previous years.
“We are only going to be able to absorb this for so long, unless hospitality businesses are offered some form of relief such as a VAT cut, like they were through 2021.
“Some sites have tried massively to capitalise on the staycation boom from 2020 and have made their prices unreachable for some.”
Cutting back
Claire Jones, owner of Strawberry Safari shepherds huts, in Wormald Green, between Harrogate and Ripon, said she had also seen a quieter year compared to last year.
Strawberry Safari.
She said:
Concerns over dwindling campsites in Yorkshire Dales“We believe this is due to a combination of people going abroad and also cutting back on short breaks in between their main holidays, due to cost of living increases.
“That said, last year’s demand was unprecedented and so it’s hard to compare the two.
“We have still seen some lovely guests this year, many of whom are here to enjoy the many events happening in and around Harrogate.”
Community leaders say they are becoming increasingly alarmed over the gentrification of campsites in the Yorkshire Dales, claiming camping pod, yurt, log cabin and static caravan developments are “pushing out” young people and those with smaller budgets from holidaying in the area.
Mounting concerns over the affordability for visitors of staying in the national park were raised as the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority agreed to launch enforcement action against over numerous unauthorised changes to the type of accommodation at Bainbridge Ings holiday park near Hawes.
A meeting of the authority’s planning committee in Grassington heard claims that soaring demand for staycations following the pandemic and higher profit margins from using land for glamping rather than camping had added to a rash of campsite closures.
Some members held their heads in their hands as they were shown aerial photographic evidence of how the long-established camping and caravan site at Bainbridge Ings had been extensively developed, with low landscape impact camping at the prominent location edged out.
Officers described a litany of unauthorised changes, retrospective approvals, and development in breach of planning conditions and contrary to Planning Inspectorate appeal decisions at the site.
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Several members responded by stating the holiday park’s owners were making a mockery of planning rules and urged officers to take “very vigorous” enforcement action.
Swaledale councillor Richard Good, a Duke of Edinburgh Award expedition assessor, said while there was “a definite need for camping in tents” in the national park the lack of campsites was becoming a serious problem.
He said:
“With the increase of people coming into the Dales we have noticed over the last year or so a lot of those people will want to come in tents.”
The meeting heard sites that had hosted young campers for generations were now being developed with glamping facilities or static caravans for people with higher disposable incomes and that the area’s campsites had regularly been used by people who could not afford to stay elsewhere.
Speaking after the meeting, Wensleydale farmer John Amsden, chairman of Richmondshire District Council’s planning committee, said glamping pod and holiday lodge parks were “popping up like mushrooms” in and around the national park, but there was often little that planning authorities could do to stop them gaining consent.
He said:
“Campsites that have people for a full week have just disappeared. There’s only Usha Gap and Muker.
“People who can only afford to camp are being pushed out. There seems to be nothing for the younger generation because many of them can’t afford to stay in log cabins and the like, which can be as expensive as renting a cottage, the prices for which have also gone up.
“I don’t think it’s about profits, I think it’s about greed.”
He added while many people were making large investments in creating holiday parks, there was a concern over what would happen to the landscapes and local economy when the boom in staycations subsided.
Bainbridge Ings campsite’s owner has been asked to comment about the enforcement action.