Britons speculating on the rise in popularity of “staycations” has resulted in Haven Holidays reporting a 38 percent rise in sales of “static” caravans this summer.

Haven said that it had sold 2,500 caravans on mainly coastal sites since March, meaning that 25,000, or about half, of the caravans in its 34 holiday parks are now owned by third parties.

Cornwall and Wales have proven to be particularly popular, with sales in those areas more than doubling this summer, the company reported.

Naomi Woodstock, senior product manager at Haven, told The Times: “A lot more people are holidaying in Britain now and that’s making a huge difference. More and more people are coming to the parks and typically it is those who have had a holiday with us and enjoyed it that buy the caravans.

“We have also noticed a rise in the demographic. A lot of people that would traditionally have gone overseas are now visiting the parks and buying caravans.”

Haven Holidays said that it had recorded a 15 per cent increase in visitors to its caravan parks in the school summer holidays this year, compared with last year,

In some cases, people are buying the caravans as an investment. A typical caravan costs about £18,000 and can be rented out for up to £1,000 during August. A buyer can use their caravan or sub-let it, privately or through Haven.

Haven’s caravan sales figures come hot on the back of new data showing that UK holidaymakers had cut their foreign trips by more than a million in June, compared with the same month last year.

About 4.87 million Britons made overseas trips in June, the lowest for any month since July 2002 and 17 per cent below the 5.98 million figure a year earlier, according to the Office for National Statistics.

UK residents made 13 million visits to continental Europe in April, May and June, down from 14.9 million a year earlier. The number of visits to North America declined from 1.2 million to 930,000 during the same period.