Internet Access now a must for holiday parks

Internet Access now a must for holiday parks

The dramatic rise in internet usage means that whether or not a park provides internet access could become increasingly important when it comes to people choosing a holiday park. It provides them with the opportunity to keep in touch with friends, family and the office and enjoy a home-from-home experience without having to compromise their internet use.  Consequently holiday parks owners may want to give serious consideration to offering this facility otherwise they could run the risk of losing out to parks that do according to Andy Hicks, managing director of wireless communications systems specialist, Ramtech.

The Growth of Internet Usage

In 2009 Ramtech recorded a total of 16 million minutes across 70 parks - clear evidence that there is a real demand for this service from visitors to holiday parks.

Internet usage is now twice as high as readership of magazines and newspapers with people spending an estimated 3.4 hours a week on average reading these compared to 6 hours spent browsing the internet* - a trend that looks set to continue.   It clearly demonstrates that the internet is becoming an increasingly valuable resource that people use.

In addition consumers will spend on average 14 hours a week online – the same amount of time that they spend watching television.**

The growth in social media has also had a major influence on the length of time people spend online and is one of the most popular internet activities.  Networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter and blogging sites enable people to communicate and network on a larger and more efficient scale.

Teenagers and Children

One of the highest percentages of internet users are teenagers who use their laptops, computers and mobile phones to play games, buy online merchandise, go to websites about films, TV shows, music groups and sports.  In a recent report by EMarketer it was found that a total of 18.8 million teenagers and 14.1 million children in America use the internet and it’s likely to be a similar story in the UK.

Also about 73% of teenagers aged between 12-17 and 39% of children aged between 3-11 are regularly online.   Its clear evidence that the internet is an important source of entertainment and information for younger generations and will continue to grow in popularity and the way it is used.

As a result, parents with teenagers are clearly going to look for holiday parks that offer internet access in order to make sure everyone is happy on holiday!

Business Benefits and Growth

Expanding Wi-Fi services makes good business sense therefore from the point of view of attracting more people to the park in the first place but it also means that people are likely to spend more time and money on the park once they are there so is a shrewd business investment.  Not only that but once Wi-Fi is in place, parks can use the same network to deploy wireless cameras (CCTV).

“We have long-standing business relationships with a significant number of the parks that have decided to develop and extend their Wi-Fi systems so that they are not just for customer use, but can also be used by the parks themselves,” said Andy.  “Such systems, which have a safe and secure park owned network, can be used to provide greater levels of park efficiency, communication and security.”

Statistics were gathered from Media Use Statistics *Forrester Research respondents

**Report entitled; “U.S  Entertainment and Media Consumer Survey, 2005.) authored by Jupiter research analyst Barry Parr.