Landal GreenParks is a European network of

holiday village A holiday village (also abbreviated HV) is a holiday resort where the visitors stay in villas. There is a central area with shops, entertainment, and other amenities. One example is Center Parcs Center Parcs may refer to: * Center Parcs UK and ...

s, with locations in the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Background

The company owns 106 holiday villages, which contain over 15,000

bungalows A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is either single-story or has a second story built into a sloping roof (usually with dormer windows), and may be surrounded by wide verandas. The first house in England that was classified as a bu ...

. Its headquarters is in

Leidschendam Leidschendam () is a town and former municipality in the province of South Holland of the Netherlands. Along with Voorburg and Stompwijk, it is part of the municipality Leidschendam-Voorburg. History The town's name has been in use for centurie ...

, in the Netherlands. Landal GreenParks has 44 holiday villages in the Netherlands, and is therefore the biggest in its kind. Of the other 16 villages, 6 contain

campsites A campsite, also known as a campground or camping pitch, is a place used for overnight stay in an outdoor area. In British English, a ''campsite'' is an area, usually divided into a number of pitches, where people can camp overnight using ten ...

, with a total of 1,500 places to stay. About 3,000 people work at the company. Landal GreenParks aims to be

climate neutral Carbon neutrality is a state of net-zero carbon dioxide emissions. This can be achieved by balancing emissions of carbon dioxide with its removal (often through carbon offsetting) or by eliminating emissions from society (the transition to the "p ...

by 2030. It has partnered with environmental organizations, for example, to improve biodiversity.

History

The company was founded in 1954, when the Dutch company "Nillmij" bought up the Dutch holiday village "Rabbit Hill". Initially, it was meant to provide the houses to staff of the company, but because there was only a small number of these, people from outside the company were permitted to rent a

bungalow A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is either single-story or has a second story built into a sloping roof (usually with dormer windows), and may be surrounded by wide verandas. The first house in England that was classified as a b ...

, where they could celebrate their holiday. This became attractive, and more villages built. The first village abroad appeared in 1965 in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. The Nillmij company was rebranded, after several mergers since 1969, to "ENNIA". All holiday villages changed their name to ENNIA as well. In 1983, ENNIA merged with "AGO", and together, they formed the new company

Aegon N.V. Aegon N.V. is a Dutch multinational life insurance, pensions and asset management company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands. As of July 21, 2020, the company had 26,000 employees. Aegon is listed on the Euronext Amsterdam and is a consti ...

Every holiday village had to be renamed because of this merging. After several more companies merged, it was decided that the "Aegon Recreatie Holding B.V." had to be sold. On 18 July 1996, all holiday villages were sold to a group of investors, who were operating as Landal GreenParks. In 2002, Landal GreenParks acquired Beheer & Projecten (literally: Manage & Projects) from

Groningen Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...

, including the management of 34 holiday villages of

Gran Dorado Gran Dorado was a holiday villages company based in the Netherlands. Until the merger in 2002, it was the biggest holiday villages company of Europe. Today's owner is the French company Pierre et Vacances, and is merged with the Center Parcs comp ...

, from

Pierre & Vacances Groupe Pierre & Vacances Center Parcs () specializes in tourism services, providing holiday and entertainment ''villages'', leisure activity residences and hotels under the brands Pierre & Vacances, Maeva, Center Parcs, Sunparks, and Adagio (th ...

(the parent company of

Center Parcs Center Parcs may refer to: * Center Parcs UK and Ireland Center Parcs UK and Ireland (formerly Center Parcs UK) is a short-break holiday company that operates six holiday villages in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, with each cover ...

). Originally Pierre & Vacances wanted to exploit the villages by themselves, but the Dutch authority didn't allow this. When the small villages from Creative Holiday Parks (taken over from Gran Dorado resorts in 1997) were taken over by Landal GreenParks, this company became the largest of holiday villages, while Gran Dorado and Center Parcs had this title first. The company was part of Wyndham Destination Network, which is a business unit of

Wyndham Worldwide Travel + Leisure Co. (formerly Wyndham Destinations, Inc. and Wyndham Worldwide Corporation) is an American timeshare company headquartered in Orlando, Florida. It develops, sells, and manages timeshare properties under several vacation ownershi ...

. In 2018, Wyndham sold the company to

Platinum Equity Platinum Equity, LLC is an American private equity investment firm founded by Tom Gores in 1995. The firm focuses on leveraged buyout investments of established companies in the U.S., Europe and Asia. History Platinum Equity was founded in 199 ...

. In July 2021, it was announced that Roompot would buy Landal GreenParks, subject to regulatory approval which was still pending in November 2021. In November 2021, following a strong summer of

staycations A staycation (a portmanteau of "stay" and "vacation"), or holistay (a portmanteau of "holiday" and "stay"), is a period in which an individual or family stays home and participates in leisure activities within day trip distance of their home an ...

, Landal announced that they would be adding nine more parks in the United Kingdom.

Awards

Landal Darwin Forest won gold in

VisitEngland VisitEngland is the official tourist board for England. Before 1999 it was known as the English Tourist Board and between 1999 and 2009 as the English Tourism Council. In 2003, it merged with the British Tourist Authority to form VisitBritain bef ...

's Awards for Excellence 2020 in the holiday park category. Landal Sandybrook is a finalist in VisitEngland's Awards for Excellence 2022.

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite web, url=https://www.landal.com/about-landal , title=About Landal , website=www.landal.com , publisher=Landal GreenParks , access-date=2022-05-05 {{cite web, url=https://www.landal.com/about-landal/history , title=History , website=www.landal.com , publisher=Landal GreenParks , access-date=2022-05-06 {{cite web, url=https://newsroom.landal.com/en/about-landal/ , title=About Landal , website=www.landal.com , publisher=Landal GreenParks Newsroom , access-date=2022-05-06 {{cite web, url=https://www.landal.com/destination/parks , title=Holiday Parks , website=www.landal.com , publisher=Landal GreenParks , access-date=2022-05-05 {{cite web, url=https://www.landal.com/-/media/files/facts%20and%20figures/2020/210204bl%20facts%20%20figures%202021%20uk.pdf?v=0 , title=Facts and Figures , date=2021 , website=www.landal.com , publisher=Landal GreenParks , access-date=2022-05-05 {{cite web, url=https://research.vu.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/42149755/chapter+3+Brief+overview+of+the+history+of+AEGON%2C+Fortis+and+ING.pdf , title=The single-track reporting approach , author=J.W. Schoen , access-date=2022-05-06 , publisher=

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam The Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (abbreviated as ''VU Amsterdam'' or simply ''VU'' when in context) is a public research university in Amsterdam, Netherlands, being founded in 1880. The VU Amsterdam is one of two large, publicly funded research ...

, date=2015

External links

Landal Greenparks
Holiday villages Travel and holiday companies of the Netherlands