Supporting Employee Health & Wellbeing in Holiday Parks
I have teamed up with Ruth Badger Consultancy (RBC) on a joint blog exploring how evidence‑led health and wellbeing support can make a real difference in the holiday park sector. A great example of what strong collaboration can achieve when people and performance come together. Ruth Badger Consultancy (RBC) specialises in working with owner led holiday parks, helping improve performance through practical, hands‑on support. We’ve been friends and partners for several years and are proud to support the fantastic work RBC continues to deliver for clients across the holiday home sector, from commercial strategy and operations to leadership development and people performance, all focused on sustainable growth.
An in-conversation piece with Pegasus Health and Ruth Badger Consultancy.
Introduction: Why April matters for health and wellbeing in holiday parks
April is a useful moment to pause and look at how health is supported, not just within healthcare systems, but across the workplaces that power our economy. For the holiday park sector, it is also the start of peak operating intensity, when the demands on people, processes, and performance quickly increase. This year, April brings two timely prompts: World Health Day (7 April) and Stress Awareness Month. Together, they provide an opportunity to reflect on what “good” employee support looks like in practice, and how evidence-led health and wellbeing action can protect both people and performance.
In 2026, the World Health Organization is using the theme “Together for health. Stand with science” to highlight the importance of evidence-led action and scientific collaboration in improving outcomes. For holiday park operators, that translates into an operational reality: early intervention, quicker access to care, and practical wellbeing support can protect both people and performance.[1]
Holiday parks are built on experience. And experience is built on people.
From housekeeping and maintenance to guest services and sales teams, employees are the engine behind every stay, every review, and every returning customer. Yet, in a sector shaped by seasonality, operational pressure, and rising customer expectations, employee health and wellbeing can often be overlooked, or addressed too late.
At Pegasus Health and Ruth Badger Consultancy, we work closely with holiday park operators to take a more joined-up approach, combining structured employee health benefits with practical, day-to-day wellbeing support that works in the real world.
The reality of health and wellbeing in today’s holiday park sector
The UK holiday park and campsite sector remains a substantial part of domestic tourism. The UK Caravan and Camping Alliance’s 2024 “Pitching the Value” report found the sector generates £12.2 billion in visitor expenditure, equivalent to £7.2 billion in GVA, and supports 226,745 full-time equivalent jobs. It also found visitors to holiday parks and campsites stay 82% longer and spend 12% more than UK tourism averages.
That scale matters because the operating context has become more demanding. During the staycation surge, it was reported that 62% of Britons planned to take their main summer break in the UK in 2021, up from 50% in 2019, while bookings were running up to 40% above 2019 levels. The market has since normalised, but demand remains meaningful: around 23% of UK consumers take holiday park breaks.
What this means for people on the ground
Housekeeping, maintenance, grounds, reception, food and beverage, and holiday home sales teams often work across long days, weekends, and peak-season surges. Those roles combine physical strain with emotional labour, especially where customer expectations are high and online reviews can affect future bookings and on-park sales performance.
The wider workforce data helps explain why this matters. HSE’s 2024/25 key figures show 1.9 million working people in Great Britain were suffering from a work-related illness; 964,000 from work-related stress, depression or anxiety; and 511,000 from work-related musculoskeletal disorders. HSE also estimates 40.1 million working days were lost due to work-related ill health and workplace injury. Those are highly relevant risk areas for holiday parks, where manual handling, repetitive movement, long shifts, and customer-facing pressure are all common features of day-to-day operations.
Location can intensify the challenge. The Chief Medical Officer’s report on health in coastal communities highlighted poorer health outcomes and barriers around access to services in many coastal areas. For operators in rural or coastal settings, delayed access to treatment can turn manageable issues into longer absences, putting more strain on core year-round staff.[5]
Commercial impact: wellbeing is a business issue
In holiday parks, employee wellbeing is not separate from commercial performance. Research has found that 86% of respondents see holiday parks and campsites as a good-value holiday choice, while staycation statistics note that 70% of UK holidays are taken in summer and 60% of travellers are influenced by positive reviews. When teams are overstretched, guest experience suffers; when guest experience suffers, reviews, repeat visits, and revenue suffer with it.
Where Ruth Badger Consultancy fits
Ruth Badger Consultancy has been delivering specialist consultancy to the UK holiday park industry since 2009. RBC works directly with owner-led holiday parks and groups to develop strategies, improve processes, support and train teams, increase revenue and achieve growth. The wider RBC team brings operational and commercial expertise spanning holiday home sales, reservations, park operations and people development.
That makes the partnership with Pegasus Health credible and complementary. Pegasus Health focuses on structured employee health plans, faster access to care, and practical benefit design for permanent staff; RBC brings a commercial and operational lens, helping leaders turn people support into something embedded in day-to-day management rather than a standalone HR initiative.
Why the World Health Day science theme fits holiday parks
The 2026 World Health Day theme is especially relevant because “stand with science” is really a call to use evidence, not instinct alone. In a holiday park setting, that means using data on absence, common health risks, claim patterns, workforce demographics, and service access to decide what support employees actually need. It also means treating early intervention as a measurable business strategy: faster access to GP support, physiotherapy, and mental health help can reduce the odds that a short-term issue becomes a long-term operational problem.
Practical takeaway for operators
For holiday park owners and senior teams, the question is not simply whether wellbeing matters. The question is whether current support is robust enough for the realities of the sector: demanding physical roles, customer-facing pressure, seasonal intensity, and often limited local healthcare access. The operators that review those pressures properly, and then respond with evidence-led support, put themselves in a stronger position to retain experienced staff, reduce avoidable absence, and protect guest experience.
Useful links
[1] https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2026/04/07/default-calendar/world-health-day-2026-together-for-health-stand-with-science and https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-health-day/2026/key-messages
[2] https://www.ukcca.org.uk/media/o3og4sel/ukcca-uk-report-2024.pdf
[3] https://store.mintel.com/report/uk-holiday-centres-and-parks-market-report
[4] https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/overview.htm
[5] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/chief-medical-officers-annual-report-2021-health-in-coastal-communities
[6] https://www.ukcca.org.uk/media/uirdvgue/cost-of-living-case-study-2024.pdf
[7] https://ruthbadger.com/ and https://ruthbadger.com/about-rbc/
[8] https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-health-day/2026/key-messages
