Somerset: Families opt for staycations to fight rising costs

Families say they prefer holidaying in the UK to avoid rising costs and soaring temperatures abroad.

Some holiday parks have a huge spike in last-minute bookings for August after a slow start to the summer.

Derrick Jones, from Hoburne Blue Anchor caravan park in Somerset, said he suspects the slow start was due to people being careful with budgets.

Stephanie Mason said she opted to take her family to the caravan park due to the cost-of-living crisis.

"Its been a massive issue for everybody," she said. "There's also a guarantee that the weather will be nicer here.

"It's an issue that it's more affordable to holiday in this country at the moment. You can budget a bit easier, you know what your prices are."

Rose Goddard, whose family owns a caravan at Hoburne Blue Anchor, said having a holiday in the summer is really import to her, so her family had been careful with food shopping and budgeting to be able to have one.

"We've been careful with where we do our food shopping," she said.

"We do try to stick to a weekly budget with food because we've noticed that's gone up considerably. We just shop in Lidl but even that's up.

"There might be times where we spend a bit more in the week, so we choose to not do something at the weekend. We're just fortunate that we're both working."

Mr Jones said he has recently seen seen a 50% increase in short stay, last-minute breaks in August.

"Since Covid I think people are enjoying the UK more, there are more staycation breaks," he said.

"It has been a real slow start to the year so we were worried.

He said he is grateful that the "holiday industry is picking up dramatically".

"With the cost-of-living issues, these days people are conscious of what they're spending and are budgeting throughout the year," he added.

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