Local employer, Innovative Leisure, the UK’s leading supplier of free-roaming high ropes courses, has extended their strategic partnership with Haven Holiday Parks, with the launch of 3 new projects and a new Service Contract in recent months, representing significant growth.
Based in Oadby, Leicester, Innovative Leisure has been a local employer for 23 years and is one of the UK’s leading adventure attractions specialists. Already working with some of the biggest brands in the visitor attraction and holiday park industries, including Haven, Center Parcs, Bear Grylls Adventure and Merlin Entertainments, Innovative Leisure have a global reputation for their expertise in providing active family fun, and hold exciting plans for growth in the UK and Europe.
Despite the economic challenges that the hospitality industry has faced throughout the pandemic and more recent cost of living crisis, the investment from UK leisure businesses in adventure attractions, and appetite from holidaymakers has been overwhelmingly positive:
Since installing their first adventure attraction with Haven Holidays in Spring 2019, the total number of Innovative Leisure attractions has grown to over 25 across 19 out of the 38 parks in the Haven estate. As well as representing a significant milestone, it reinforces the trend that both holiday park guests and operators are favouring active, shared experiences that can be enjoyed by young families and thrill seekers alike.
Commenting on the partnership with Haven, Phil Pickersgill, Managing Director at Innovative Leisure, said: “We have worked hard to help Haven develop adventure attractions over recent years and it’s satisfying to see their customers enjoying these at so many locations this summer.
“With the cost-of-living pressure on families, it’s been interesting to see revenue on leisure activities perform well this season even if spending on other areas of their holiday has retreated slightly. We think this reinforces the importance of experiences and parent’s willingness to spend on outdoor activities.”
As one of the largest parks in the Haven estate and having recently received significant phased investment over recent years, Haven Cleethorpes Beach, near Cleethorpes, UK was an ideal candidate for an exciting expansion to their activities offering. In summer 2022, Haven opted to commission two new ropes courses at Cleethorpes Beach to challenge and delight their guests and caravan owners.
The Aerial Adventure Max high ropes course caters for guests over 1m in height accompanied and 1.2m in height unaccompanied. Towering at over 10m tall across two levels and featuring a variety of challenges, including zip lines, rope bridges, and suspended platforms.
Meanwhile, the Mini Aerial Adventure junior low ropes course offers a more family-friendly experience for younger guests to enjoy with their parents – enabling Haven to cater for the full age range of their audience demographic.
Since the launch of the new ropes courses, Haven Cleethorpes Beach has seen more people on park than ever before and a significant uplift in a number of their key performance metrics, including guest satisfaction, revenue and footfall. This is a strong indicator that active, collaborative activities that families can share and enjoy together are an ever-increasing priority for holidaymakers, despite a tough year economically, as Matt Batey, Head of Activities at Haven Cleethorpes Beach, elaborates: “One of the things we have seen is a huge increase in our NPS results since the investment of the Aerial Max course, so not only are we seeing a huge uptake in terms of our revenue in our sales on park, but we are also seeing a much better and improved satisfaction rate from our guests and our owners.”
As with all their clients and projects, the Innovative Leisure team looks after the whole process – from initial planning and scoping, through install to full staff training, annual inspections and ongoing maintenance.
“Innovative Leisure have been fantastic in terms of communication and the way in which they’ve held our relationship,” said Matt Batey, Head of Activities at Haven Cleethorpes Beach. “They’ve always been at the end of the phone to support and talk through anything that they can help us with. But in addition to that, they’ve continued to provide the training and the support that we need to make sure we operate to the best that we can do. If you’re a business that’s looking at trying something different, looking to expand, certainly in terms of the high ropes courses, I would recommend Innovative Leisure.”
This project follows 27 other adventure attractions installed across the Haven Estate, including 9 climbing walls, 6 high ropes courses and 12 low ropes courses across 19 parks, including a first-of-its-kind double zip line element at Haven Haggerston.
