Three local caravan parks have received national recognition by being nominated in the 2003 Calor Gas Caravan Park Awards.
Saundersfoot Bay Leisure Park and Swallow Tree Gardens are finalists in the 'Best Holiday Park' category, with Trafalun Caravan Park nominated for 'Most Improved Park in Wales'. All three have been praised for their superb facilities and the environmental aspects of their design.
Final judging will be completed in September and winners will be invited to a gala presentation ceremony at Blenheim Palace in October, to receive their prizes. The Best Park in Wales will receive £2,000 and the Most Improved Park, £1,000, in addition to a plaque and framed certificate to mark its achievement. Winners in the Best Park category will also be put forward for Best Park in Britain which carries a further £1,000 reward.
The Calor Gas Caravan Park Awards, which are run in conjunction with the UK's national organisation for tourism and supported by the National Caravan Council and the British Holiday and Homes Parks Association, are now in their seventeenth year. They assess the 'best' and 'most improved' parks in England, Scotland and Wales.
The scheme rewards the development of environmental aspects of park design and management and look at how facilities blend in with the rest of the park and its surrounding landscape. Winners are then able to use their prize money to translate some of their plans into reality.
Gavin Tomlinson, Calor's marketing manager for the caravan sector, commented: "As the standard of entries rises every year, it is a great achievement for these parks to have reached this stage of the awards. The parks have shown a high level of commitment to improving customer facilities whilst still putting a great deal of effort into enhancing environmental aspects of the parks' design."