April the 26th, 2023 - Have you ever heard of a concept called garden camping? This idea has been put forth by the Germans, who have already started offering single-night camping opportunities. Croatian garden camping might tackle a few issues at once, should it take off here.
Camping is very popular across Croatia, and the likes of the Istrian peninsula, where the nature is abundant and sleeping under the stars is a real treat, have been dabbling in it for many years now. With more and more campsites popping up all over the country, could a Croatian garden camping concept take off? Some believe so.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the always inventive Germans have kicked off the so-called garden camping trend by starting to offer one-night camping possibilities in the Waldshut district this summer in order to take advantage of the current boom in camping. At the same time, introducing such a way of doing things will do very well in suppressing the growing number of wild campers, as reported by local Istrian portal Glas Istre/The Voice of Istria.
"Farmers, private individuals and communities made their meadows and parking spaces available for a tent or camper for one night and offered additional services such as sanitary facilities, a barbecue area and firewood, breakfast or some kind of snack. Camps for one night quickly created a wide network of simple and natural accommodation facilities for mountaineers, cyclists and campers, which complemented the offer of official camps in the entire region,'' reported Jerko Sladoljev from Top Camping in Porec for Glas Istre.
By the end of this year, according to Sladoljev, the concept will be extended to the entire Black Forest, and according to some sources, to the whole of Germany. With the aim of bringing tourists closer to nature, a digital platform was created that displays more than 1,700 parking spaces with contact information, as well as campsites and places for tents. Italy launched a similar initiative three years ago with the concept of freer camping called "garden camping".
It seems that Croatian garden camping might also be a very good way of not only bringing in more money for tourism in general, but also for furthering the ''sustainable tourism'' trend. On top of that, much like with the German idea, it will likely do very well in curbing the issue of wild camping across the country, which plagues wardens and can lead to illegal fires getting out of hand and causing untold damage to the tinder dry Dalmatian and Istrian forests during the hot summer months.
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