Haven Holidays

The current Haven chain is formed from a number of acquisitions by its former brands, including Warner Holiday Camps (now trading as Warner Leisure Hotels). After deciding to focus more on its gaming operations such as Mecca Bingo, the Rank Group decided to sell its holiday arm. In October 2000, Bourne Leisure purchased the Rank Group's UK leisure arm, Rank Leisure, for £700 million, which included the Haven, Butlins and Warner Leisure Hotels chains. Haven parks used to come under four categories and were defined by four different colours, All Action Parks (Red), Lively Parks (Blue), Leisurely Parks (Yellow) and Relaxing Parks (Green). Each park category would reflect what type of Entertainment and Activities would take place at that park and also reflect the size of the park.[4]

Following the purchase of Haven by Bourne Leisure they decided to restructure the company and sold off the smaller parks in the company, 12 of these smaller parks were subject to a management buyout and went on to form a new holiday company; Park Resorts, some other parks were sold to Parkdean and Park Holidays UK, with Park Resorts and Parkdean later merging themselves to form Parkdean Resorts. Haven retained its larger parks and Bourne Leisure began integrating both Haven and its existing British Holidays chain in 2002, trading entertainment and facilities between the two brands, until the two companies merged in November 2004 under the name 'Haven and British Holidays'. Due to Haven being the better known name the British Holidays identity was eventually dropped completely by the end of the 2007 season.

In 2007, Bourne Leisure purchased Far Grange Park & Golf Club. The park was initially a Haven park for both holidaymakers and caravan owners, as seen in the 2008 brochure, however after just one season, the park has since become an Owners Only park.

In April 2015, Bourne Leisure purchased the Thornwick & Sea Farm Holiday Centre and Greenacre West caravan parks from Flamborough Holidays Ltd;[5] Thornwick & Sea Farm holiday centre's complex was redeveloped for the 2016 season and was rebranded 'Thornwick Bay'.

In 2019, Haven ventured into a new type of resort with the purchase of Celtic Haven Spa Holiday Cottage Resort in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales. The resort is a sister park to Lydstep Beach Holiday Village, situated in the village of Lydstep. The Celtic Haven resort is the first in the Haven brand to operate 365 days a year.[6]

It was announced on the 23 February 2022 that Haven had completed the acquisition, of its first park since being taken over by Blackstone. Acquiring a previously family run park in Skegness, Richmond Holiday Centre, which for the 2023 season has been renamed Skegness Holiday Park. The park offers more than 700 pitches of accommodation, swimming pool, entertainment venues and restaurants and not far from Skegness beach. [7]

In March 2018, Haven partnered with the charity Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI).[8]

In February 2019, Haven became an official sponsor of Team GB, supporting the team in the build up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.[9]

Haven has mascots called the Seaside Squad for childrens entertainment they are:

Rory, Annie, George and Jaz.[10]

They take part in shows in the entertainment venues during the day and the evening. The Seaside Squad also does meet and greets with guests at other times during the day such as at Breakfast in the site restaurants.

Former Mascots

The first mascot of the Haven brand was Rory the Tiger, first introduced in 1988. Bradley Bear was introduced in 1993 as the mascot of British Holidays, Haven Holidays' former sister brand. As the two brands merged when acquired by Bourne Leisure, the two mascots began to appear alongside each other, despite Bradley Bear not being a part of the 'Tiger Club' brand.

Other characters introduced alongside Rory and Bradley were Greedy the Gorilla, Anxious the Elephant, Sylvester the Snake, Manic the Parrot, Polly the Ragdoll Popkins and Naughty Ned PenDragon, though by the end of the 2009 season, Haven ditched Merlin, Sylvester and Manic, and it was explained by Haven that Merlin had whisked himself, Sylvester and Manic away to a magical place and he didn't know how to get themselves back.

In 2007, the characters had a group name for the first time and were called the 'Zoo Troop' and all had new costumes by this time and In 2010 Naughty Ned was renamed DJ Ned. However, the previous brand would continue to be used alongside the 'Zoo Troop' brand until the end of the 2012 season when Haven rebranded their characters for 2013, choosing to ditch the jungle setting in favour of a Seaside setting. This resulted in a rename to the 'Seaside Squad' and Polly becoming a Lifeguard to fit in with the new Seaside Squad brand, and the characters again received new costumes.

In August 2022, Haven announced that the 'Seaside Squad' would be rebranded on the 1 October - Rory will remain however he has been redesigned, Anxious has decided to use her real name "Annie", Greedy also decides to use his real name "George" and Bradley Bear will be replaced by his niece, "Jaz the Bear".[11] In a letter on the Haven website, it was further explained that Bradley Bear was moving to Florida.[12][13] Their real ages have also been revealed. Rory is 14, Jaz is 13, Annie is 12 and George is 11. They have also been given new voices. Their voice actors are unknown but Annie has a Yorkshire accent instead of an American one, Jaz has a Midlands accent, Rory has a Cockney accent instead of an American accent and George still has a Scottish accent, but is voiced by a different person.

The new Squad also have new costumes. They each have a casual outfit and a superhero outfit.

Although Polly and Ned are no longer with the Seaside Squad, they are still appearing in puppet form throughout 2023. In letters explained on Haven website, Polly has gone to help the RNLI save people's lives, whilst Ned has gone to Ibiza to go DJing at the clubs there.

There are currently 38 [14] Haven parks in the United Kingdom.

The number of Haven parks peaked at 56 in 1999, not long before their merger with British Holidays in 2002, however many of the smaller parks were sold off throughout 2001 and again in October 2004 in a move that Haven said was to improve the standards of the larger and more profitable parks.

Current Haven Parks:

• Blackpool: Cala Gran, Marton Mere
• Cala Gran, Marton Mere
• Cornwall: Perran Sands, Riviere Sands
• Devon: Devon Cliffs
• Dorset: Littlesea, Rockley Park, Seaview, Weymouth Bay
• Essex: The Orchards
• Kent and Sussex: Kent Coast (formerly Allhallows),[15] Church Farm, Combe Haven
• Lake District: Lakeland
• Lincolnshire: Golden Sands, Cleethorpes Beach (formerly Thorpe Park[16]), Skegness Holiday Park (2023)[17]
• Norfolk: Caister-on-Sea, Hopton, Seashore, Wild Duck
• Northumberland: Berwick, Haggerston Castle
• Scotland: Craig Tara, Seton Sands
• Somerset: Burnham-on-Sea, Doniford Bay
• Wales: Greenacres, Cardigan View (a sister park to Greenacres), Garreg Wen (a sister park to Greenacres), Hafan y Môr, Lydstep Beach, Celtic Haven (a sister park to Lydstep Beach), Kiln Park, Penally Court (a sister park to Kiln Park), Presthaven, Quay West
• Yorkshire: Blue Dolphin, Primrose Valley, Reighton Sands, Thornwick Bay, Far Grange (owners only)

• Haven Holidays Official Website