holiday camp

As most of these holiday camps are in rural settings this level of investment can only be good news! This story tells us

For decades it was famous for contests to find the knobbliest knees and most glamorous grandmothers. But in recent years visitors to Britain’s best-known holiday camps have been more likely to drink champagne and luxuriate in spas. (The grannies were dispatched long ago, along with fluorescent yellow plastic palm trees.)

Now, as it eyes a potential market among the growing numbers of families wanting to holiday in the UK as a result of a weak pound, Butlin’s is preparing to make the biggest investment in its 83-year history and position itself as a rival to upmarket family holiday giant Center Parcs.

Its Bognor Regis resort – like all the other Butlin’s destinations, its status has been upgraded from a mere “camp” – is to open a £40m pool complex next month featuring 6,300 square metres of waves and waterslides. “This isn’t something you do every day,” said Jon Hendry-Pickup, Butlin’s new managing director and the former boss of the Italian restaurant chain Prezzo.

Designers approached parenting website Mumsnet, he said, for a list of “must-have” family features, from underfloor heating in the changing rooms and special areas for toddlers to outdoor gardens and eco lighting. The result, the company hopes, will cement a “reputational reboot” that has seen it fight off what Hendry-Pickup calls misconceptions about Butlin’s traditionally cheap and cheerful image.

“It’s a challenge, but I think the bigger challenge would be if people didn’t know who the brand was,” he said.