16 June 2009 | Croatia’s once-booming nudist camps are facing extinction, due to both a general decline of interest in this type of tourism and a decrease of facilities catering to it in Croatia.

Out of 24 nudist camps which Croatia boasted in the 1980s, only half are still operating, with their staff reduced as well from 1,290 to 650, according to a recent publication by the DPA news agency.

Croatia, with its more basic camp facilities, the publication wrote, is partly losing out on nudist tourists to more luxurious camps in France and Germany. While 5.1 million nights were spent in Croatian camps by nudists 20 years ago, their number has dwindled to 2.1 million last year. The amount of time they spent in the country’s camps has also decreased – from an average of 9.5 days in the 1980s to the current seven.

Another factor which contributes to the decline of this type of tourism in Croatia is the general drop of interest in nudism across Europe. The continent, according to the publication, had 25 million registered naturalists at the movement’s peak in the 1980s, while they number only 3 million today.

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