Europeans turned to budget-friendly 'gamping' this summer, but what is it?

With the cost of living spiking across Europe, more and more holidaymakers are turning to camping instead of paying for hotels this summer.

And one trend, which took off during COVID, is garden camping, or 'gamping' as it's known by some.

For prices usually much cheaper than campsites, and for locations more private, secluded and closer to nature, greater numbers of tourists are paying to stay in someone’s garden or field.

Most have spartan facilities: an outdoors toilet and a BBQ pit. Many are in a farmer’s field. They may lack the services of a traditional campsite, but gamping enthusiasts argue you can get closer to nature and local culture.

During the pandemic, when hotels and campsites were closed, and when people couldn’t travel too far from their homes, they allowed people to have convenient short breaks. During 2022, amid a cost of living epidemic, they’ve offered campers a holiday at around half the price of traditional camping. 

Campspace, a Netherlands-based online platform that lists gamping plots, told Euronews that their booking platform grew by around 300 per cent in 2021, compared with 2020. They expect a similar growth rate for 2022.

Slovenia has recorded the highest increase in outdoor stays (76%), followed by Austria (32%) and Belgium (25%), says Jantien Abma, head of content at Campspace. “Regions where camping was already a popular pastime, like the Netherlands, Germany and the UK, are also showing an increase in outdoor stays,” she added.

Etienne de Galbert, CEO of HomeCamper, a France-based platform, says they recorded 160,000 overnight stays in 2021 and expect between 250,000 and 300,000 this year. Unlike most traditional campsites, which tend to close after the peak months of the summer, gamping is