Stepping out! Interest in the great outdoors reaches fever pitch as outdoor accommodation specialist Pitchup.com reports bookings up 250%

Website visits up 148%, to 6m, in 2013

Booking spend up 244%, to £4.3m

Mobile bookings up by over 800%

Number of bookable sites almost doubled year-on-year

Increase in business leads to new appointments 

The Pitchup.com statistics coincide with a recent report by VisitBritain, which says the tourism industry is not only Britain’s fastest-growing employment sector, but also that it’s responsible for generating record spend from visitors both at home and abroad. Figures from VisitBritain estimate tourism spending last year hit £113bn, of which £24bn came from foreign visitors and £89bn from the domestic market.

Outdoor accommodation specialist Pitchup.com generated bookings worth £4.3m last year – up an impressive 244% on the £1.2m-worth of bookings made through the site in 2012.

The company says interest in the great outdoors is reaching fever pitch, with visits to the Pitchup.com website up 148% year-on-year. The number of visits has jumped from 2.4m in 2012 to 6m in 2013, as more people search Pitchup.com’s comprehensive list of outdoor accommodation options, which include campsites, motorhome pitches, caravan parks, yurts, tipis, pods and log cabins.

And the impressive growth looks set to continue, with the latest figures showing traffic in January 2014 was up 144% on January 2013 and bookings for January 2014 were up 261% year-on-year.

Interestingly, the number of bookings made using mobile devices has surged by 832% year-on-year (January 2014, compared to January 2013).

All the increase in business has led to Pitchup.com appointing six new members of staff since October, bringing the total number working at the company to 19. The new roles are in sales, web development and web content.

What’s more, Pitchup.com has almost doubled the number of bookable outdoor accommodation sites on its website, with 791 bookable sites in February 2014 compared to 424 in December 2012.

In addition, the company hit another milestone this month, by signing its 100th French site. The feat is all the more remarkable considering the company only fully launched its France section last June.

The 100th French site is the family friendly Camping Lac Bleu, right on the lakeshore in the heart of the Drôme area, surrounded by lavender fields and vineyards, at the foot of the Vercors and in the gateway to Provence.

Pitchup.com founder and managing director Dan Yates says: “These impressive Pitchup.com statistics just go to show how popular holidaying in the great outdoors is.

“With over 5,000 accommodation options featured on the site – almost 800 of which are bookable – Pitchup.com is now firmly established as the go-to website for anyone looking to go camping, caravanning or glamping.

“We’re thrilled that our France section has hit the 100 milestone. Searches for the French sites we feature are on the up – and, with interest in the Tour de France starting in Yorkshire this summer and the 70th anniversary of the D-Day Landings, France is proving to be a popular destination among our users this year.”

For more information visit http://www.pitchup.com

ends

Media information:

Cass Helstrip, Samantha Marsh or Jardine Howlett at White Tiger PR

Cass.helstrip@whitetigerpr.com 07968 255464

Samantha.marsh@whitetigerpr.com 07711 265666

Jardine.howlett@whitetigerpr.com 07866 508737

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 outdoor accommodation in the UK, Ireland and France. The site provides users with a simple platform in which they can search and book an outdoor 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 accommodation 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 UK wide camping and caravanning sites/parks 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 and unique outdoor accommodation options, which may not have previously had a web presence.