holiday camp

plural holiday camps

1. UKAn enclosed resort providing accommodation (often in chalets) and entertainment, generally aimed at families.

   The cult of the holiday camp has brought seasonal expresses to fresh destinations such as Penychain, in North Wales; over 250,000 people go by train annually to Butlin's holiday camps alone.

   1957 July 28, D. S. M. Barrie, “Sixty Years of British Express Trains”, in Railway Magazine, page 456

   1 more example

   The history of these televised contests can be, in part, traced back to holiday camps, according to Annette Hill, professor of media and communication at Lund University, Sweden: "The best talent shows are great entertainment, full of warmth and empathy," she says. "If you look back at Butlins in the UK in the 1930s and 1940s, it was mainly a working-class holiday camp that offered a whole entertainment experience and at the heart of it were the people known as the Red Coats, who had to provide a warmth of atmosphere."

   2021 September 15, Laura Martin, “How talent shows became TV's most bizarre programmes”, in BBC