With more than 15 million camping trips taking place in the UK every year, the team behind Campmate say the free app is the sector’s most visually appealing. Every campsite, glamping site and holiday park featured on Campmate is illustrated with high quality pictures, maps and detailed information about facilities, available accommodation and things to do in the local area.
Martin Smith, founder of Campsites.co.uk, who developed the app says: “Holidays are such a visual experience and we saw the opportunity to bring the visual style of Campsites.co.uk to an app. Campmate features big pictures and an easy interface that has been designed to mimic the iTunes design people are already so familiar with.”
Campmate allows users to tailor searches by a wide range of facility filters, such as whether locations have pools, children’s clubs or various types of sports and leisure activity. The app also includes lifestyle preferences such as sites that are adult only, allow pets or have a peaceful atmosphere.
The start up experience sets the tone for Campmate, with a fun on-boarding session that helps users download more than 600 campsites and holiday parks. Searches are started by entering a region, county or town, or by using the phone’s GPS to find a site nearby. As the search process takes place users can tag their preferred sites to add them to a list of favorites, ready to be instantly recalled during future uses of the app.
Smith says Campmate is launching at a key point for the UK holiday industry, with Brexit pushing up the cost of holidays abroad for UK holidaymakers and the plummeting pound making Britain cheaper for foreign tourists.
He says: “Since the economic downturn in 2008 the popularity of UK staycations has grown and we expect Brexit to push this trend still further. This growth has been great for the glamping sector, with UK campsites introducing a huge array of high quality accommodation to grab the attention of this new audience, with everything from tipis to treehouses, camping pods to airstream caravans available to book. Campmate fills a hole in the market for an app that makes finding these amazing sites easier.”
