How many times in the last few months, days or even hours have you muttered the phrase: I need a holiday?
In these bleak wintery months, it’s on my mind constantly and not helped by reminders around the home.
The bottle opener fridge magnet bought in a little shop in Key West; a t-shirt from a restaurant beach shack in Anguilla; a mug from Berlin; and a colourful tagine bought in Marrakesh sitting sadly on our dining room table.
Little trinkets from big adventures which now really do feel like a lifetime ago and it’s safe to say I’m broody for.
Tent life: Many Britons may have already written off any plans for an overseas holiday this year – and perhaps an outdoor adventure in the UK is on the cards
It’s hard to predict what our holidays will look like later in the year. Can we go on an overseas jaunt, or is it simply a case of locking in a trip in Britain for the summer?
As we race into February, only the brave will be booking foreign trips – personally, I think it is too early to simply write off an overseas trip later this year. We’re still five months away from July.
Plus, many reputable travel companies are guaranteeing full refunds, so for some, the gamble might worth it.
Whatever happens, it looks like demand for holidaying at home will be even stronger than last year.
With that creates opportunities, including the chance for landowners to ‘rent’ out their green pastures for tent going Britons who want to get away with plenty of space and fresh air thanks to a relaxation of planning permission rules.
This week, Consumer Trends looks at how much money could be made this way and what our summer holidays might look like this year.
Home holiday 2021?
Whenever I flick on the television recently, there seems to be some sort of teasing travel programme on to sock me in the guts.
This week, for example, there were back-to-back shows on ITV: Gregg Wallace in South Africa, followed by Martin Clunes in Australia.
Sandwiched in between was Iggy Pop advertising travel firm On the Beach.
Meanwhile, over Christmas, I watched Fred Sirieix and Michel Roux Jr on Remarkable Places to Eat on BBC, a fantastic show.
They were in Bristol, showcasing some of the great restaurants and an excellent looking lido in the vibrant city.
It had such an impact it’s now on our potential travel list for this summer, highlighting a shift in focus for us: Bristol over Barbados.
With this, comes the plan of: maybe we could go elsewhere in Somerset too and find a good spot to stay.
One option is a tent, although my two experiences – Glastonbury 2010, and a trip to Newquay with my Sixth Form mates – might be enough to put me off forever.
Last year saw us forced to axe plans to go to Italy and Crete, and instead we went to Norfolk – twice. We loved it. At the moment, it is hard to look past the comfort and ease of a home holiday.
Tent rent: the back to basics camping economy
Dan Yates, founder of Pitchup.com, says outdoor accommodation has outperformed other categories during the pandemic – and that appetite shows no signs of abating.
He said: ‘While businesses focused on built accommodation including Airbnb, Booking.com and Expedia reported significant annual downturns in 2020, Pitchup saw just 3 per cent lower volume globally, and double digit increases for its UK business.’
He adds: ‘Having rediscovered what’s on their doorstep last year, nearly all are staying close to home.
‘Previous figures suggested less than a third of Britons would opt for a UK holiday given the choice, but 95 per cent of our bookings last year were domestic, with Google searches for “glamping near me” in 2020 ranking 133 per cent higher at their peak compared to 2019.
‘We’re also attracting hundreds of new listings, increasing customer choice and capacity – new sign-ups are already 25 per cent up on this point last year.
‘Farmers and other landowners are diversifying, prompted by a relaxation of “permitted development” rules enabling campsites to open for 56 days each year without planning permission.’
Wow factor: A view from the Girt Down Farm in Combe Martin, Devon
We made £22,000 listing two fields
On this last point, Pitchup says landowners could earn up to £7,000 per day by opening a temporary campsite during the holiday season.
It says these relaxed rules, which have been extended into 2021, present a real opportunity to make money.
Previously, landowners could only operate a campsite for 28 days without planning permission, but this was extended in June last year to help the post-Covid recovery.
Currently, the extension only applies in England, but the UK’s devolved administrations are also expected to follow suit shortly.
One permanent farm site in Pembrokeshire earned more than £230,000 in the last year after diversifying when they realised there was a shortage of domestic accommodation due to Covid.
Last year, Pitchup saw more than 200 new temporary sites open up to take advantage of the extension to the planning permission exemption.
Girt Down Farm near Combe Martin, North Devon, is owned by Paul and Lesley Nicholas and they are one of the 200.
They rear cows and ewes, including a hardly native Welsh breed that does well on the hill farms of Exmoor.
They decided to open as a campsite for the first time as the UK came out of the first lockdown. By the end of the season, the campsite had generated around £22,000.
Lesley said: ‘We went live on Pitchup at teatime on 8 August and by bedtime, we had 30 bookings, including eight for the next day. It was a shock, but a good one.
‘Pitchup make it very easy to get bookings. We’ll definitely be doing it again this year.’
Its data suggests outdoor accommodation brings significant economic benefits to local economies, with parties spending an estimated £46 per day off site.
Locations tend to be expansive and away from urban and residential areas, mitigating social distancing concerns.
How likely is an overseas getaway this year?
While Pitchup is bullish about the amount of people who are likely to holiday in Britain this way and there could be a scramble for good sites to camp, a survey from airline easyJet shows that our appetite for getting away hasn’t shrunk too much.
It says that 68 per cent of UK consumers are actively looking to travel or have already booked a flight in 2021.
Johan Lundgren, easyJet chief executive, said: ‘We know that there is pent up demand, we see it every time that restrictions have been removed, but this survey further underlines the fact that people want to travel as soon as they can. We know the biggest single barrier to booking and travelling is government restrictions.’
While easyJet will be hoping that people will behave in this way, a national representive YouGov poll of 3,544 people suggests something different.
When asked: Do you feel confident that you could have a normal summer holiday abroad this year? Only 9 per cent replied with I do, and three quarters said they didn’t. It’s safe to say, the 2021 travel season is going to be hard to forecast.
Travel adventure: A survey by easyJet suggests people could be still looking at heading overseas – but one by YouGov suggests the opposite
Pining for travel
While lockdowns and the pandemic have brought their challenges in various shapes and sizes, this time round, I have found myself staring out of the window and dreaming of sandy beaches, noisy restaurant lined cobbled streets and the open road, far more than last year.
Life is better on holiday. I’ve realised just how vitally important trips are to not just my wellbeing, but that of my family too.
We find ourselves going through our holiday photographs with our young daughter – ‘not long, hopefully,’ we say, ‘until the next one.’
Holidays fill your life with vibrancy and stories like no other period of your life, whether it is a snatched weekend getaway somewhere in Europe, a longer roadtrip somewhere exotic or a lazy one by the pool, soaking in the sun, away from the pressures of home. It’s escapism.
That might be work, parenting, the constant battle to clean-up, and everything else in between. Yes, you know those pressures will be there when you return, but you’ve had time to live, to think, to declutter the mind.
I feel incredibly blessed to have been able to travel to some incredible places in my life, far more than my parents’ generation.
Now it has been stripped away, I realise I will never take any of it for granted again – whether that is an exotic blow the budget trip, or camping in our green and pleasant land.
