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UK: Holiday village chain Center Parcs has unveiled initial plans to open its first site in Scotland.
The operator, which currently owns six sites in the UK and Ireland, has made “early stage” proposals to submit a planning application next year for a resort near Hawick in the Scottish Borders. The site would include around 700 lodges and would represent an estimated £350 million investment, providing up to 1,200 jobs.
The project is situated on land owned by the Buccleuch Group between Hawick and Selkirk, with suggested offerings including indoor and outdoor activities, such as an indoor water park.
Center Parcs chief executive Colin McKinlay said: “This is a tremendously exciting project and offers the opportunity to transform leisure and tourism in the Scottish Borders. Center Parcs is an exceptionally popular destination for families in the UK and Ireland and there is robust demand to support a seventh village.
“Throughout our history, we have demonstrated that a Center Parcs village provides significant economic benefits locally, regionally and nationally.
“We already have many guests from Scotland come to our villages in England and this affords the opportunity for more people from Scotland to enjoy a fantastic Center Parcs experience,” he added.
Meanwhile, Center Parcs executive chairman Benny Higgins insisted that the project would have an “outstandingly positive impact” on the tourism and leisure sectors at the site and in the surrounding area.
Center Parcs’ current UK and Ireland sites include Longleat Forest in Wiltshire, Whinfell Forest in Cumbria, Woburn Forest in Bedfordshire, Elveden Forest in Suffolk, Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire, and Longford Forest in County Longford, Ireland.
The chain first revealed plans to operate a sixth site in the UK last summer after being forced to scrap plans to build a new 900-lodge holiday village near Crawley in West Sussex in February 2023. At the time, the location of the site was deemed to not be “suitable” for the development, due to not being able to meet biodiversity targets.
The site would have included lodges as well as indoor and outdoor leisure facilities, a subtropical swimming paradise, restaurants and shops, and an Aqua Sana Spa.
At the time, Center Parcs said that an alternative site was being sought elsewhere in South East England but it now has its sights set on its first resort in Scotland.
Also in May last year, the operator was put up for sale by Canadian private equity firm Brookfield for a figure between £4 billion and £5 billion, more than double the £2.4 billion it had paid for the chain eight years before. However, the sale was scrapped last November due to high interest rates and inflation.
