The UK Caravan and Camping Alliance wants to know what your guests thought of their holiday. More precisely, it wants the numbers that prove what the sector is worth.

Its national visitor survey closes on 31 October. That leaves holiday parks and campsites a little over a week to push it to the people who stayed with them this year.

This is the third run of the study. The last one, the 2024 Pitching the Value report, put a figure on the sector: £12.2 billion in visitor spending, £7.2 billion in gross value added, and 226,745 full-time jobs. The 2026 survey refreshes those numbers.

Take the release at face value and it reads like a prize draw.

A four-night stay at Braithwaite Village in the Lake District. Three nights of Experience Freedom glamping. Enter, win, done.

Look closer. The prize draw is the hook. The data is the point.

What the Survey Is Actually For

A sector that can prove its value gets a hearing. One that cannot, does not.

The £12.2 billion figure from 2024 is what the clubs and associations carry into rooms with planners, councils and government. It is the case for better planning support, for investment, and for being counted as serious rural and coastal employment rather than a seasonal afterthought.

That case is only as strong as the evidence behind it. A thin survey response means a weaker number. A strong one means the sector arrives with fresh data that holds up.

The research is run by Frontline, the house named on the survey and in the alliance’s contact details. Responses are confidential. The findings feed a report in the mould of Pitching the Value, covering visitor habits, expectations and the sector’s economic and social weight.

A second survey is running alongside it, aimed at park and site owners rather than guests. If you operate a park, that one wants your figures directly.

What Operators Should Do This Week

The deadline is the whole job here. 31 October is close.

  • Email your guest list. One line, one link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/UKCCAPR. People who have just had a good break make your best respondents.
  • Add the link to your post-stay email if you send one. It costs nothing.
  • Put it in front of this season’s late bookers. Anyone on site in October can answer while the stay is fresh.
  • Brief reception. A QR code at the desk turns a checkout into a response.

The more guests you push through now, the more your region shows up in the final data. The report breaks down by nation and leans on rural and coastal employment. A quiet response from your area means your area counts for less when those numbers get used.

This is not about the glamping break. It is about whether the sector’s next headline figure beats £12.2 billion, and whether your part of the country is in it.

The Bigger Picture

UK domestic tourism has had a strange few years. The staycation surge, then the squeeze on household budgets, then a market that still spends but chooses harder.

A refreshed set of numbers tells the sector where it stands now, not where it stood in early 2024.

Bob Hill, speaking for the UKCCA, says operators are “continuing to invest and improve their parks, accommodation, facilities and sustainability initiatives.” The survey is how that claim gets tested against what guests actually report.

One date matters. Get your guests to answer before 31 October, or wait for the next round.