A substantial slice of the Norfolk holiday park industry will fall under new ownership in the wake of a near £1bn merger.

Park Resorts and Parkdean are joining forces to create the UK's biggest holiday park operator, taking charge of 73 sites and 1.8 million customers.

The £960m tie up will bring annual turnover across both groups to a combined £370m, with underlying earnings of around £92m.

But the merger still has to overcome regulatory approval with the Competition and Markets Authority, which may request the firms to sell-off some holiday parks if it deems the enlarged company to be to big for the market.

Industry experts believe the deal may herald a cash-injection to fund new facilities and upgrades for the parks, with cost-cutting measures – if any – being confined to back office operations at the companies' headquarters.

Park Resorts has 49 sites, five of which are in Norfolk, including: Breydon Water Yare Village, California Cliffs near Great Yarmouth, Heacham Beach Holiday Park in King's Lynn, Kessingland Beach Holiday Park in Suffolk, Manor Park Holiday Park in Hunstanton and Summerfields Holiday Park at Scratby. Parkdean, which has 24 family holiday parks, also owns Cherry Tree Holiday Park in Burgh Castle, near Great Yarmouth.

The merger will transform the two businesses into a UK powerhouse, forging Park Resorts' foothold in the East Anglia and the North West with Parkdean's strength in the South West and Scotland.

Alan Parker, chairman of Hertfordshire-based Park Resorts, said: 'The Park Resorts Group and Parkdean Holidays are an outstanding strategic fit with highly complementary estates and revenue mixes. I am greatly looking forward to working with the teams to deliver further growth.'

Park Resorts is majority-controlled by private equity group Electra, which first invested in the company in 2012, and whose other investments have included Sheilas' Wheels insurer esure. The deal will see a new refinancing for the business which will take Electra's cash proceeds from the company to £106m, 81pc of its original investment cost.

Pete Waters, executive director of Visit East Anglia, said: 'If the merger means more investment in facilities then it can only be good for customers and tourism. Norfolk is enjoying multi-million pound expenditure on upgrades to many of our visitor attractions at the moment, and there's a real feeling of optimism in the visitor economy on the back of a successful summer.'

Chris Scargill, tourism and leisure partner for accountants Larking Gowen, added: 'A merger of this size would indicate the strength of the UK holiday sector.

'Inevitably such mergers create opportunities for cost saving but they will be unlikely to affect customer-facing staff.

'In an ever more competitive sector, these savings are likely to be re-invested into upgrading and maintaining the sites they have in the UK.'

It comes after Britain's five Center Parcs resorts – including Elveden near Brandon – were bought by Canadian investment firm Brookfield in a deal worth about £2.4bn earlier this year.