In February, the final camping data for 2016 was delivered by the Croatian Bureau of Statistics (DZS). Despite the bad start due to rainy weather in 2016, camps in Croatia still recorded growth.
Thus, according to final data in 2016, the camping sector recorded 17.5 million overnight stays, which represents an increase in the number of overnight stays by 1.9% compared to 2015, reports HRTurizam on March 1, 2017.
Earlier this year the new ADAC guide for 2017 was introduced which indicated a total of 119 Croatian camps, which is the same number as the previous year. As the Germans were Croatia’s traditional majority of guests in the camps, with 33% of overnights, it is understandable that the publication of this guide (and its camp ratings) is very important for the Croatian camping sector. “The importance is growing even if we look at the wider context of ‘German-speaking’ countries that include Austria and Switzerland, while the percentage of overnight stays rose to as much as 44%, and most of these guests make the decision to vacation precisely on the basis of the assessment and description of the ADAC camp guide,” said Adriano Palman, director of Croatian Camping Union (KUH).
The ADAC camp guide, in addition to being generally important for the German-speaking area, is significant in that it uses a special system of evaluation for camps which is generally accepted as the most important European system of quality evaluation for camps. “It should be noted that in 2016, just after the analysis of the rating guide, the quality of Croatian campsites were in an extremely high second place in Europe (and in front of us were only the Dutch camps),” emphasizes Palman. According to ADAC, the average grade quality of Croatian campsites increased by 2.3% compared to 2015 and they obtained a rating of 3.6 (out of a possible 5).
When looking at the regions, the regions with the highest quality camps (above average RH) remain in Istria and Kvarner, followed by Zadar. Average quality campsites, according to ADAC, are in Split, Šibenik, and Dubrovnik. However, quality camps in Dubrovnik increased by 2.3% compared to last year.
During the last 4 months KUH, with support by the Ministry of Tourism, organized 12 guest lectures on the topic of camping tourism. Guest lectures were organized in 8 secondary and 4 higher education institutions for the training of personnel in tourism in Croatia throughout Zagreb, Split, Virovitica, Mali Lošinj, Prelog, Krk, Poreč, Rovinj, and Opatija.
The lectures were attended by over 649 students and their professors and teachers, and the participants were acquainted with the basics of camping, statistics, development trends, and marketing tools for the promotion of camping, which represents a quarter of total Croatian tourist offer, both in capacity and in the number of overnight stays.
