Upmarket holiday park in North Yorkshire boosted by boom in staycations

The ten acre, £500,000 Wayside Lakes development in the village of Wrelton between Kirkbymoorside and Pickering is situated next to Wayside Holiday Park.

Both parks are owned by Yorkshire businessman Mark Goodson.

Mr Goodson revealed that he had sold seven up-market lodges at Wayside Lakes this year, worth a total of £700,000.

In 2020, Wayside Holiday Park and Wayside Lakes had broken the £1m turnover barrier for the first time in its 45-year history.

Wayside Lakes development caters for up to 38 lodges with 37 having already been sold.

Mr Goodson said: “2020 and 2021 have been extraordinary years for us. The Covid-19 crisis closed us down from March until July last year, but the demand after that for our lodges was unreal. We sold ten lodges last year and seven this. It is astounding.

“On one level, it seems wrong to have had such successful years amid such a ghastly global pandemic. But on another, we are proud to have provided a safe and healthy bolthole for people wanting to escape from the virus and all the pressures it brings.

“To say I am thrilled is an understatement. This has been a stressful time for everyone in the UK, as Covid-19 brought the country to a standstill.

“Now, with lockdown and restrictions ending, there is some real light at the end of the tunnel at last.”

The global pandemic has made travel difficult and led to people holidaying in the UK instead leading to a boom in staycations.

Mr Goodson said: “The staycation boom has meant we have had a very successful 18 months but I don’t want to sound triumphalist, after the terrible time we have all been had, but I am pleased – and humbled – that we have been able to satisfy a demand which has helped people cope with the global pandemic.”

Mr Goodson’s family is steeped in the entertainment business and ran cinemas in Filey, Tadcaster and Sleaford.

The family acquired Wayside in the 1970s with Mr Goodson eventually becoming custodian of the parcel of picturesque land in North Yorkshire.

The Yorkshire businessman calls Wayside a “haven of tranquillity in the North York Moors National Park”.

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