Bookings for peak summer breaks at Center Parcs are up by more than 19% as the domestic holiday park company marks its 25th anniversary this year.
The company says overall bookings are up by 2.2% for 2012 on what was a record 12 months in 2011.
Short breaks for Christmas 2012 and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee bank holiday in June are also performing well, “suggesting that families are still opting to stay in the UK for main school holidays,” Center Parcs claims.
The company saw average occupancy of 96% across its four forest-based sites in 2011.
It attracts around 1.6 million holidaymakers a year, mainly on short breaks, to its parks in Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire; Elveden Forest, Suffolk; Longleat Forest, Wiltshire and Whinfell Forest in Cumbria.
Sales and marketing director Colin Whaley said: “There has been a lot of uncertainty about how the market would behave in 2012 and what effect the Olympics and the eurozone crisis would have on holiday bookings.
“However, during this peak booking period, we are seeing some very encouraging booking numbers for the year ahead. We are very optimistic for 2012, and expect another strong year.”