THE NUMBER of people choosing to spend their holidays in England are expecting to double this summer.

Blame it on the credit crunch forcing families to cut down on expensive foreign trips, the strong Euro or the fantastic weather that we've been promised this year, but the "Staycation" is on the rise.

Local campsites have reported doing a fantastic trade as the trend for staying at home this summer increases.

According to recent research by an insurance company around 30 percent of Brits are considering going camping in England for their summer holiday.

Terry Farr, who operates The Elms Campsite in Lippitts Hill, Loughton said he hadn't met any "staycationers" yet, but the recession had increased the number of foreign bookings.

He said: "We're doing fine this year, last year was a total disaster with poor weather, if it had got any worse i'd have had to retire."

"The pound has gone down against the Euro so we're getting a lot of European bookings, particularily the Dutch.

"When you look at the exchange rate, they're effectively getting the same holiday for 17-18 percent less than last year."

There are 50 acres of camping land at Debden House campsite in Debden Green and Senior Land Manager David Graves said he's seen the number of Brits booked in rising year on year.

He said: "It is a growing trend, its getting pretty busy around here, in fact we're the closest to being fully booked that we've ever been, I think people are starting to holiday in their own country a lot more, but we also get lots of foreign bookings everytime the pound struggles."

The Lee Valley Campsite's facilities are managed by Keith Davies, who said camping had lost its "hi-de-hi" image.

He said: "This is an international site, we have 14 acres and we get visitors from all over the world, China, Peru, and even further away."

"We're well up on last years bookings, our sister site in Hoddesdon shut six months ago but that was 100 percent British tourists."

The 14-acre site has 46-static luxurious caravans, which Mr Davis said can rival most hotel rooms.

He said:" A £50,000 static caravan can compete with anything, they've got satellite TV and leather couches, the old image of camping really doesn't apply anymore."

He added: "I think camping and caravanning has something for everyone, half our customers say they want to get out into nature and escape the smoke for a bit,they're usually locals, the other half use this as a base and can't wait to get into the city."

"We're also cheaper than most European Campsites, and the British have better facilities, because we've been doing it so long."