For others, the lure of a weekend or midweek break at a holiday camp pales somewhat compared to the option of hopping on a cheap flight to Prague, Paris or any number of other well-worn European city break destinations. Yet, according to managing director Sean Woodgate, Trabolgan is holding its own.

He is looking forward to a particularly busy peak season.

"Trabolgan fills for June, July and August. Certainly for mid-July to midAugust you could fill it twice over, " he said.

Over the past year Trabolgan has hosted about 100,000 visitors . . . 60,000 residential guests and 40,000 day trippers. The complex had turnover of 8m from accommodation, bar and restaurant facilities and the various sports and activity centres on site, according to Woodgate, and produced pre-tax profit in the region of 1m.

Trabolgan was built by a Dutch pension and life assurance company as a holiday retreat for its workers, for whom it built holiday homes and a golf course.

British brewing giant Scottish and Newcastle bought it in 1985 and opened it to the public after adding extra accommodation and a swimming pool complex with a 'wave machine'. The latter was the jewel in Trabolgan's crown and was considered quite an extravagant project by the standards of pre-boom Ireland.

That cachet has been diminished somewhat in an era of low-cost air travel and multiple foreign holidays. The business was bought for just 12m in 2002 by Trevor Hemmings, a British billionaire entrepreneur whose interests include Blackpool Tower, a chain of pubs and holiday resort operator Leisure Parcs.

Trabolgan retains some of the British holiday camp shtick made famous by Leisure Parcs brands such as Butlins and Pontins. The cheery frontline staff in their coloured jackets (Trabolgan's crew are the 'bluecoats') are still a fixture, providing nightly family entertainment.

Trabolgan boasts exclusive rights to Barney, the purple dinosaur beloved of pre-schoolers, who puts in daily performances. The pitch, said Woodgate, is squarely at families with children between the ages of three and 13. "It's a real haven for those age children, " he said.

Bluecoats and family entertainment might sound too much like BBC sitcom Hi-de-hi for the modern holidaymaker.

Trabolgan still packs them in, however, and the Irish resort retains a strong and loyal customer base, according to Woodgate.

"We take 100,000 people here. The volumes are growing by 7% a year, " he said. What's more, up to 70% of Trabolgan's custom is repeat business.

"Obviously we must be doing something right because we've got some great customers who support us every year, " he said.

Part of the appeal is value for money.

A seven-day stay for a family of four in July or August costs just under 1,300, including access to all the facilities. "If you were to go to Spain at that time of year you're looking at twice the price, " Woodgate said.

In recent years the company has been trying to broaden its appeal and move away from the slightly anachronistic holiday camp image. Up to 1999 most of its custom was from families booking in for week-long stays. Marketing Trabolgan as a day-trip destination is a relatively recent innovation, said Woodgate.

Now day visitors account for 40% of its business.

The next perceived avenue for growth is from "special interest" groups.

Woodgate is keen to attract sports teams, school excursions and groups catering for people with special needs.

Already Trabolgan has had some success in that regard. The addition of facilities such as an astroturf soccer pitch, go-karting and adventure sports facilities is a help.

The Hemmings family estate has put over 10m into developing new attractions and maintaining the existing facilities since 1999. Woodgate said plans are afoot to enhance the site further.

"We've got, thankfully, some land we could develop."

Multi-purpose sports pitches are the first item on the agenda; Trabolgan is costing them out with a view to applying for planning permission.

Woodgate is acutely aware that, given the amount of land held by Trabolgan, the pressure is on for any new development to produce a handsome return, lest the owners start speculating on what the 140-acre site might fetch on the open market or what non-tourism uses it might be put to.

"It would be dishonest to say there aren't other options out there, " Woodgate said, but he insists the owners are committed to seeing Trabolgan as a holiday and leisure resort, not as development land. "They have given me, and this business, a lot of support and a lot of capital.

I think there's every confidence as we celebrate our 21st anniversary that there's another 21 years in it."