Carry on camping!

That is the message as record numbers of holidaymakers are booking camping and caravan trips in Kent.

This year, at UK sites run by the Caravan Club, bookings were up by a staggering 40 per cent for the summer of 2009.

And advance bookings at Kent caravan parks for 2010 have also shot up.

Sue Greenaway, warden at the Bearsted Caravan Club site in Hollingbourne, said this year had been phenomenal.

She said: "I have never known a year like it.

"We have never had so many new caravanners, who have gone out and bought a new caravan - whether new or secondhand."

She said many put it down to the credit crunch, saying they were not sure if their husband was going to have a job. Others were simply cutting back on foreign holidays - particularly after the Euro's crash.

But it was noticeable how many well-off youngsters were turning to a life on the road, with the freedom it gave.

Audio: Tony Clish, from Park Holidays UK, on why Blighty is best

She said: "At sites such as those run by the Caravan Club, there are good showers and loos, tidy sites. You have the freedom to just pitch up."

Meanwhile at Park Holidays UK, which has sites in New Romney, Dymchurch, Swalecliffe and Sheerness, advance bookings are up by two thirds on last year's figures.

That is thanks to a combination of the low value of the pound and the recession.

It looks like the case for a repeat of this year's "stay-cation", says director Tony Clish.

He added: "Many of our bookings are from those abroad.

"The exchange rate is a factor just in the same way that we find it expensive to go across to Europe. Kent benefits from the connections into France - the Eurotunnel and the ferries."