Pitchup.com encourages campsites and holiday parks to bridge the digital divide as Cornish owners cash in

Online outdoor accommodation specialist Pitchup.com says that most UK campsites and holiday parks are significantly lagging behind their south west counterparts when it comes to online booking.

A quarter of listings in Cornwall now accept online bookings through its website, compared with just six per cent of listings in north west England.

When asked to account for the divide, Dan Yates, managing director of Pitchup.com, said: "Campsites and holiday parks in the south west just seem to be a lot more proactive about using the internet as a sales tool.

"VisitEngland stats* show that 67% of domestic holiday bookings were made online in 2012. Campsites and holiday parks that can’t be booked online are missing out on a substantial chunk of a market accounting for £2.5bn of tourism spending in Great Britain."

657 campsites and holiday parks can be booked on Pitchup.com, of which 218 (33%) are in south west England and 93 (14%) are in Cornwall.

The top online-bookable regions on Pitchup.com are:

• South West England (20% of Pitchup.com listings bookable)
• Wales (14%)

The worst performers are:

• Northern Ireland (1%)
• North West England (6%)
• Central and North East England (9%)

Yates continues: "Campsites and holiday parks in underperforming parts of the UK really need to up their game or they risk losing out. With half of adults (51%) now owning a smartphone and one in four (24%) households a tablet computer**, the surge in online bookings will only continue."

"Our top selling site is Newton Mill Holiday Park in Bath, where we have taken 1,432 bookings so far this year."

* Great British Tourism Survey (GBTS) 2012, VisitEngland

** Communications Market Report 2013, Ofcom

For more information visit www.pitchup.com.

ends

Media information:

Cass Helstrip or Samantha Marsh at White Tiger PR

Cass.helstrip@whitetigerpr.com 07968 255464

Samantha.marsh@whitetigerpr.com 07711 265666

Notes to editors

Founded in 2009 by former lastminute.com man, Dan Yates, multi-award winning Pitchup.com is a free guide to all types of camping and caravanning in the UK, Ireland and France.  The site provides users with a simple platform in which they can search and book a camping or caravanning holiday with total ease.  The customer experience from landing on the home page through to booking a holiday can be completed in as little as four pages.  The site also goes beyond traditional searches by allowing users to search for a site based on more than 80 criteria, such as adults only and campfires allowed, and view nearby events, Good Pub Guide pubs and VisitBritain attractions.  Users can also search on the offers page to find the best deals available.  Pitchup.com features over 5,000 camping and caravanning sites/parks throughout UK & Ireland with France recently added into the equation.  It enables users to search for all types of parks and sites from the major brands right through to one off campsites which may not have previously had a web presence.