Campsite directory with a fresh pitch

Thanks to the economic downturn, domestic tourism in the UK has been booming. The UK Caravan Club reported a 40% rise in bookings this year over 2008 figures, while according to the National Office of Statistics, the amount of Brits travelling overseas fell by over 7 million compared with last year. To capitalise on this, camping and caravanning site directory Pitchup.com is making it easier than ever for UK “staycationers” to settle on the right destination. Launched at the beginning of this holiday season, the website lists over 5,000 camping and caravanning sites around the UK and Ireland. Users can easily narrow down the selection using a whopping 79 different criteria, including whether the site has wifi or disabled facilities, and whether campfires are allowed. Some campsites are grouped by themes, such as “Gastronomic delight” and “Tipis, yurts and wigwams”. Users can also search by proximity to attractions such as beaches, battlefields or national parks. And if holiday memories of struggling with maps on the dashboard are putting anyone off, an “Add to TomTom” button next to every listing makes it easy to load directions onto a GPS navigator. Campsites can be rated by users, creating a listing is free, and no sites are given priority in the search results. So what’s the revenue model? The site is currently affiliate driven—listed next to every campsite are, for instance, tickets for upcoming events in the area. But Pitchup’s founder, Dan Yates, says there are plans to add an online booking functionality within six months. One to bring to campers in your neck of the woods? The bigger picture here: online directories for campgrounds are hardly new. But most were built back in the 1990s, and haven’t been updated much since. And the same goes for directories in many other categories. Find a few that need to be brought into the 21st century—preferably in related fields—and you could have the makings of your own directory empire. Just be sure to keep innovating 😉