On Tuesday evening, the Dutch government announced that primary schools will close for the Christmas holiday one week early, in an attempt to curb rising COVID-19 infections. Now facing an extended festive period, many families are considering heading to holiday parks. Center Parcs De Kempervennen and Beekse Bergen have reported considerable increases in bookings in the past few days.
Miram van Riel, Sales Manager at Libéma (a holiday park company with Beekse Bergen and Dierenbos in its portfolio) says bookings already started to increase last weekend. ‘As soon as the first rumour emerged about an extra week of Christmas holidays for primary school children, we saw bookings immediately start to rise.’ She says the real surge happened ‘exactly after the news notification from NOS on Monday evening’, confirming that schools would indeed close early. She says families were making bookings in their masses and the phone was ringing off the hook.
Van Riel says there are a few spots left, but they are almost fully booked. She says families can save a lot of money by going on holiday next week instead of during Christmas week itself.
Martijn Tabak from Center Parcs De Kampervennen reports a similar tale. ‘It is all hands on deck,’ he says. ‘But we can do it. The past two years have made us get use to the fact that we might have to switch gears at short notice.’
Source: Omroep Brabant
Translation: Rachael Vickerman
