Head of Marketing at Elite Dynamics, Natalie Fryer tells us about her journey into holiday parks.

When Natalie dropped her Geography GCSE in favour of Travel & Tourism, her parents weren’t too impressed. But it was early family holidays to holiday parks in the UK and France that turned out to be the catalyst for sending her down the tourism, and particularly the holiday park career path.
Now nearly 20 years on, she heads up the marketing at a company providing global business management solutions specifically for holiday home and park industry operators.

Natalie lives in Kendal with husband, Mark and children, Blake and Sienna.

I was the kind of child who wanted to get on the bus to go for an adventure.

My earliest memories are of travelling and the experiences that holiday park holidays offer – the driving to France, the ferry crossings, the excitement of arriving on the park, and the whole family friendly atmosphere - I feel like it was embedded in me.

Even today when I take my own kids away, I get exactly the same feeling. You don’t grow out of it. Holiday parks are definitely my happy place!

I’m a great believer in Further Education Colleges so I knew that would be the best option for me when it came to my degree. Everyone learns in different ways and I’ve always liked the vocational aspect.

I spent the third year of my degree working on a campsite in France when the worst weather on record hit the region. The campsite was completely flooded.

At 20 years old, that was a real baptism of fire on how to respond to a crisis. The marketer in me knew straight away that our customers needed to be the priority, so while people around me were panicking, I had an action plan in place and I just got on with it. Afterwards we were widely praised for how we dealt with the crisis.

I never thought I would find a job that combines my two passions of holiday parks and marketing, but Elite Dynamics ticks every box. We provide holiday & residential parks with the most advanced, Microsoft powered, business management solutions available on the market today. I work closely with the Directors to drive business growth and it’s so satisfying to see the difference we can make to industry business operations, particularly when technology is at the forefront in providing answers to social distancing and health & safety questions. Our solutions improve the bottom line, but at the same time, help make jobs faster, easier, and more efficient for park staff.

It’s an exciting time to be involved in the holiday park industry with the demand for caravan and lodge holiday homes being at an all-time high. If any positives are to come from the pandemic, it would be the opening of people’s eyes to the benefits and lifestyle of owning or hiring a holiday home where you can spend quality time with the people who matter, and appreciate what we have to offer on our doorstep.

As a working mum, it's always been important for me to raise my children while continuing to further my career. Even prior to the pandemic, Elite Dynamics supported a flexible ‘work from home’ culture, and it’s great to know you’re working for a company that supports and values its people as well as customers. The tools we use are the same as we provide to customers and our CRM, social media, and project management systems are all cloud based, so I can access them from anywhere.
I work effectively from home, but technology puts me ‘in the room’ with my team whenever we need each other. It’s a high energy marketing department in a growing business, and as someone who enjoys life in the fast lane, I wouldn’t have it any other way!