Philip Fowles of "Holiday Marina"

Written by Ro Matthews

"Holiday Marina", the popular family campsite on the road between La Foux and Port Grimaud, has undergone a transformation in recent years.

Philip (left) celebrating his 10th anniversary
at Holiday Marina

The person responsible is Philip Fowles, who purchased the campsite in 1998. His original projected 5 to 6 year redevelopment plan has taken longer to achieve than anticipated but today, 10 years on, Philip feels he is finally coming close to realising his ambitions for the site. As a former Export Sales Manager for ABI Caravans, with responsibility for Southern Europe, Philip had solid experience of the static caravan industry, but what made him decide to buy a campsite?

�I came to Port Grimaud for the first time in 1987, so I was familiar with the area,� he says. �I�d spent 8 years travelling around while working for ABI and I had visited Holiday Marina in 1997 and thought it had a huge potential for redevelopment. When the opportunity to purchase it came along in 1998, I decided to go ahead and set about overhauling its entire infrastructure.

�It�s required a lot of work and constant investment which we haven�t always recouped in profits, but I do feel that now we�re finally starting to reach our goals. Our latest project, which has just been completed, is a complete renovation of the swimming pool area, costing �300,000. The new pool is not only heated, but also cooled in the Summer, with new lighting and an automatic cover, plus we have a new children�s pool, with interactive water games.

�Looking ahead, I�d like to see some improvements made to the outside bar area: it was originally completed in a bit of a hurry so I think that will probably be one of our projects for next Winter.�

Do you live onsite?

�Yes, I have a house onsite which I share with my partner and our 4 children; 3 of whom were born in France. We insist on speaking English in the house but the children all attend the local French schools, so they�re bilingual.

�We�ve done our best to integrate with the local French community. We support a couple of local charities and also sponsor a local football team, but I think our children are probably better integrated than we are: they have lots of French friends and they speak French with a French accent, which is something I�ve never managed to achieve.�

Has your work with the campsite affected your family life?

�We don�t get a lot of time off, put it like that. The campsite has been open for Christmas the past few years so we�ve worked over the holiday period and when our last child was born, my partner came out of hospital on the Sunday and went straight back to work on the Monday.

�On the plus side, our children not only have their local French friends, they also make friends with the children who stay here with their families. During the Summer, a new batch of their friends seems to arrive every couple of weeks, so I think they definitely have the best of all worlds.�

Turning the question around, has being a family man affected the way you run the campsite?

�I think we�ve definitely tried to adapt our experiences as parents to the business and we�ve worked hard to make Holiday Marina a family site with an appropriate, peaceful ambiance. We avoid coach-camping companies and those catering specifically to singles as their clients would obviously not be looking for the same things as families.

"We�re not at all aloof, the holiday makers see us around the campsite all the time and we join in with many of the onsite activities, even the karaoke evenings!

"Having children, I appreciate that to keep them entertained you have to be adaptable because fashions and trends change so quickly. Teenagers in particular have a lower boredom threshold; they�re at that age where they want to be with other kids of their own age, but they often still need adult supervision. We already have a kids� club in operation during the season for the youngsters who are staying here with their families, but with teenagers in mind, this Summer we�ll be introducing a new club for kids aged between 13 and 17.

�We�re calling it the �Ado� Club� - although one or two people have jokingly suggested we should call it the �ASBO Club�! It will be hosted by trained personnel and will offer sporty events, accompanied visits to local attractions, barbecues on the beach, boat excursions, that sort of thing. It will be a big responsibility for us, but we believe it will mean that even bored teenagers will enjoy their stay at Holiday Marina."

To find out more about Holiday Marina, see: http://www.holiday-marina.com or give them a call on 04.94.56.08.43.

This article originally appeared in the May/June 2008 issue of The Var Reporter.

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